托福阅读机经背景：石油开采废水变宝.docxVIP

智课网TOEFL备考资料托福阅读机经背景：石油开采废水变宝 The increased use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, to extract natural gas and oil in many parts of the United States, has dramatically increased the nations energy supply, but also raised concerns about such issues as water pollution. Private companies are now rushing into the relatively new market for recycling drill site water. 美国在很多地方开采天然气与石油时越来越多地采用水平钻井和水力压裂法，美国的能源供应得到极大提高，但是这也引起人们对水污染问题的日益担忧。一个相对来说较新的市场应运而生，吸引了很多私营企业进行开采工地废水回收的工作。 A machine, developed by a company called OriginOil, removes sludge from water that came from an oil drilling site - with a process originally developed for extracting algae. 这部由一个叫做“石油起源”的公司研发的机器正在清理石油开采工地的水中带上来的泥。该公司的执行官里戈斯. 埃克尔贝里说，这部机器本来是为了清除水藻而研发的。 “Petroleum is nothing but old algae, so essentially what we are doing is taking the organics out and leaving the clean water,” explained company CEO Riggs Eckelberry. 他说： “我们基本上所做的工作是，把石油当成水藻，排除水中的有机物，留下干净的水。” OriginOil has used its demonstration equipment in its home state of California to retrieve petroleum from water a driller had already processed. “石油起源”曾经在其公司总部所在地加利福尼亚展示过这部机器的功能，从已经处理过的水中收取石油。 “They gave it to us, thinking it was already clean; we brought out that gunky stuff and they saw dollar signs,” added Eckelberry. 埃克尔贝里说：“他们认为，给我们的水已经很干净了，但我们又回收到这粘乎乎的物质，他们看到了挣钱的前景。” OriginOils General Manager Bill Charneski says even a small percentage of oil retrieved from drilling operations can be valuable. “石油起源”公司总经理比尔.查奈斯基说，从开采地哪怕回收很小比例的石油也会非常有价值。 “If it is produced water and it just has oil in it, then there is going to be substantial value because you can simply put it back in the pipeline that goes to the refinery,” Charneski said. “如果开采工地的生产水里有石油，那会很宝贵，因为你可以把回收的石油直接通过管道送进炼油厂。” Produced water is what comes up with oil and gas from deep earth deposits, but drillers also use tons of water mixed with sand and chemicals in the fracturing process. 石油开采工地的生产水是随着石油和天然气从地下深处的蕴藏层里打上来的，同时，工人在开采过程中也要大