伦敦——在一个安静的工业园区里，英国初创公司 Rivan Industries 的工程师们正致力于完善一套系统，利用水、阳光和空气生产合成天然气。
LONDON—On a quiet industrial estate, engineers at British startup Rivan Industries are working to perfect a system to produce synthetic natural gas from water, sunlight and air.
他们的工作包括从水中分离氢气，并直接从空气中捕获二氧化碳，然后将这两种气体结合制造绿色甲烷，这是一种比天然气更清洁的替代品，而天然气是欧洲约四分之一家庭的能源来源。整个过程在一个模块化装置内完成，这是一种自给自足的微型发电厂，由太阳能供电，Rivan 计划对其进行大规模生产。
Their work involves splitting hydrogen from water and capturing carbon-dioxide directly from the air, then combining the two gases to make green methane, a cleaner substitute for natural gas, the source of energy for around a quarter of European households. The entire process takes place in a modular unit, a sort of self-contained mini-power plant, powered by solar energy and that Rivan plans to mass produce.