2021-2022学年度第27期总第821期
Fueling a green future (P6)
山东省烟台第二中学 赵娜娜
Lead-in
What’s the biggest shortcoming of fossil fuels?
Their carbon emissions do great harm to the environment.  

Can you think of other fuels that have zero emissions?
hydrogen

The universe’s most abundant element, hydrogen, is now on its way to becoming the future of green fuel.

While-reading
Read the text carefully and answer the following questions.

1. What are the green hydrogen projects like?
Budget: More than $150 billion (about 982 billion yuan) announced globally
Example: Airbus has designed self-contained hydrogen fuel cell pods that can be attached to the underside of airplane wings, promoting the use of hydrogen fuel for long-distance flights, which aim to achieve zero emissions. The company plans to launch hydrogen-powered aircraft in 2035, according to Daily Mail.

2. What is the biggest advantage of hydrogen?
Compared to fossil fuels, hydrogen is a more eco-friendly fuel. When hydrogen burns, the only by-product is water.

3. What are the challenges of using hydrogen as a fuel?
However, the traditional way to extract hydrogen from natural gas or coal generates considerable carbon emissions. The greenest way is to obtain hydrogen from water using electrolysis powered by renewable energy, although this process requires so much electricity that it is quite expensive.

Also, shipping liquid hydrogen is challenging, given that needs to be chilled to -253 C to do so.

4. What are the solutions?
The key to making hydrogen competitive with fossil fuels is to lower the production cost to under $1.50 (about 9.7 yuan). This would require lowering around 50 percent of renewable power costs and 75 percent of electrolyzer costs.

Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries is set to complete the construction of the world’s first liquefied hydrogen carrier by early 2021. According to Reuters, most of the world’s big hydrogen export projects are looking to ship hydrogen in the form of liquid ammonia, which can be converted to hydrogen and needs to be chilled to only -33 C.

“We could use these circumstances, where loads of public money are going to be needed into the energy system, to jump forward towards a hydrogen economy.”
- Diederik Samsom
 head of the European Commission's climate cabinet

Post-reading
What can we do to protect the environment?

Reduce our carbon footprint

Language study
1.长期的问题                    a long-standing issue
2.驱使某人去做                    drive sb to do
3.可持续能源                    sustainable fuels
4.获得······的注意                grab one’s attention
5.即将做······                      on one’s way to doing
6.带头；引领                    take the lead
7.被附在······上                    be attached to
8.氢能源飞行器                    hydrogen-powered aircraft
9.化石燃料                      fossil fuels
10.副产物                      by-product
11.被转变为                        be converted to
12.解决全球气候变暖问题        tackle the issue of global warming

1. Climate change has been a long-standing issue that continuously drives scientists to find green, sustainable fuels. The universe’s most abundant element, hydrogen, has grabbed their attention and is now on its way to becoming the future of green fuel.
2. It has designed self-contained hydrogen fuel cell pods that can be attached to the underside of airplane wings, promoting the use of hydrogen fuel for long-distance flights, which aim to achieve zero emissions.
3. Compared to fossil fuels, hydrogen is a much more eco-friendly fuel.
4. When hydrogen burns, the only by-product is water.
Homework
Think of some ways to reduce our carbon footprint and share with your partners.