首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Officials in Tampa Florida, got a surprise recently when a local firm building the state’s first ethanol (alcohol fuel) producti
Officials in Tampa Florida, got a surprise recently when a local firm building the state’s first ethanol (alcohol fuel) producti
admin
2022-11-25
37
问题
Officials in Tampa Florida, got a surprise recently when a local firm building the state’s first ethanol (alcohol fuel) production factory put in a request for 400,000 gallons a day of city water. The request by US Envirofuels would make the facility one of the city’s top ten water consumers overnight, and the company plans to double its size. Florida is suffering from a prolonged drought. Rivers and lakes are at record lows and residents wonder where the extra water will come from.
They are not alone. A
backlash
against the federally financed biofuels boom is growing around the country, and "water could be the Achilles heel" of ethanol, said a report by the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
The number of ethanol factories has almost tripled in the past eight years from 50 to about 140. A further 60 or so are under construction. In 2007, President George Bush signed legislation requiring a fivefold increase in biofuels production, to 36 billion gallons by 2022.
This is controversial for several reasons. There are doubts about how green ethanol really is (some say the production process uses almost as much energy as it produces). Some argue that using farmland for ethanol pushes up food prices internationally (world wheat prices rose 25% recently, perhaps as a side-effect of America’s ethanol programme). But one of the least-known but biggest worries is ethanol’s extravagant use of water.
A typical ethanol factory producing 50m gallons of biofuels a year needs about 500 gallons of water a minute. Most of that goes into the boiling and cooling process, which is similar to making beer. Some water is lost through evaporation in the cooling tower and in waste discharge. All this is putting a heavy burden on aquifers in some corn-growing areas.
Residents went to court in Missouri to halt a $165m facility being built by Gulfstream Bioflex Energy LLC which was projected to draw 1.3m gallons of water every day from the Ozark aquifer. Projects are being challenged in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and in central Illinois, where eight ethanol facilities are situated over the Mahomet aquifer. Demand for corn is such that more land is also being ploughed up in drier regions of the Great Plains states to the west of the corn belt, where irrigation is required, increasing water demand further.
The good news is that ethanol plants are becoming more efficient. They now use about half as much water per gallon of ethanol as they did a decade ago. New technology might be able to halve the amount of water again, says Mike Fatigati, vice president of Delta-T Corp, a Virginia company which has designed a system that does not discharge any waste water. But others are sceptical. "There are things you can close loop (i. e. recycle efficiently) and things you can’t," says Paul Greene, a senior director for biofuels with Siemens Water Technologies, designers of the water-purification technology used in ethanol factories. Perhaps ethanol just isn’t as bio-friendly as it looks.
What have most people failed to realize about biofuels?
选项
A、The huge consumption of wheat.
B、The huge consumption of water.
C、The amount of waste discharged.
D、The amount of energy consumed.
答案
B
解析
细节题。题目问的是“大多数人不了解生物燃料的什么方面?”。由文章第四段最后一句“But one of the least—known but biggest worries is ethanol’s extravagant use of water. ”可知:人们没有意识到生产乙醇燃料的用水量,这与B项内容相符。故选B。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/ui0D777K
本试题收录于:
公共英语五级笔试题库公共英语(PETS)分类
0
公共英语五级笔试
公共英语(PETS)
相关试题推荐
ForMitchellandSkyeCohen,thethird-generationownersofEconomyCandyinNewYorkCity,theshortperiodbetweenHalloweena
Happypeopleworkdifferently.They’remoreproductive,morecreative,andwillingtotakegreaterrisks.Andnewresearchsugge
Happypeopleworkdifferently.They’remoreproductive,morecreative,andwillingtotakegreaterrisks.Andnewresearchsugge
Happypeopleworkdifferently.They’remoreproductive,morecreative,andwillingtotakegreaterrisks.Andnewresearchsugge
Happypeopleworkdifferently.They’remoreproductive,morecreative,andwillingtotakegreaterrisks.Andnewresearchsugge
Rememberbooks?Theywerethosepiecesofpaperwithwordsprintedonthem【C1】________inbetweentwo,sometimes,【C2】________cove
Rememberbooks?Theywerethosepiecesofpaperwithwordsprintedonthem【C1】________inbetweentwo,sometimes,【C2】________cove
Thehumanspecieshasincreaseditslifespanby________.
Thehumanspecieshasincreaseditslifespanby________.
Ifthestudyprovesthatbearsarestillendemictothearea,theproposaltointroduceadditionalbearsofthesamespecieswil
随机试题
当前,很多社区建立了图书室,但门庭冷落、乏人问津。对此,你怎么看?
为什么毛泽东把社会生活看成是文学艺术的唯一的源泉?
A.麻疹、风疹B.霍乱、0157C.流感、SARSD.流行性出血热、登革热病毒E.流行性乙型脑炎、流行性脑脊髓膜炎在上述疾病中,可出现发热伴出疹症状的传染病是
关于心脏听诊,下列叙述哪项正确
甲公司于2008年7月依法成立,现有数名推荐的董事人选,依照《公司法》规定,下列哪些人员不能担任公司董事?(2008—卷三—76,多)
一般而言,对于库存现金每日终了,应由出纳人员进行清点核对。()
马克思说:“火药、罗盘针、印刷术——这是预兆资产阶级社会到来的三项伟大发明。”这句话反映出()。
我国刑法规定在我国领域内的犯罪是指:
人民民主专政的坚强柱石是人民解放军,我们全面加强军队革命化现代化正规化建设的主线是
Whohasgotapencil?
最新回复
(
0
)