Shownotes Transcript
Hi there, you're listening to an all-new episode of News Bites.
I'm Jacob Ingram.
And I'm Brody Halverson.
In today's news:
Chiayi Township hails new fly larvae composting system, and a small turbine that can harness the power of passing cars.
And in today's tasty tidbit:
The longest word in the English language without a vowel.
Stay tuned for more on those stories, coming up next.
嘉義推廣黑水虻消滅廚餘 Chiayi township hails new fly larvae composting system
Processing food waste has always been a tricky problem.
When we discard food waste, we have to separate the cooked and uncooked food waste.
As a result, many people just don't separate them, or even just discard food waste with trash.
Now, there is a method that might be the best solution to food waste processing, fly larvae (幼蟲).
We're not talking about the common household fly that we hate so much.
The black soldier fly looks more like a wasp (黃蜂) due to its long body.
The fly's larvae can eat almost any organic waste.
This makes them perfect for dealing with discarded food or agricultural (農業) waste.
The waste management office in Chiayi's Meishan Township adopted a fly larvae-based composting (堆肥) system earlier this year.
They system now processes around 200kg of food waste per day.
Previously, the food waste was naturally decomposed.
But the process took 3 to 6 months and generated significant carbon emissions.
Using the new system, the larvae eat up the food waste while lowering the carbon emissions.
The excrement (排泄物) of the larvae is also an excellent organic fertilizer (肥料).
Another surprising use of the larvae is that it can be used as animal feed (飼料).
The larvae is actually rich in high quality protein and fatty acids.
The life cycle of the fly is 28 to 35 days.
When the larvae enter the pupa (蛹) stage, they can be fed directly to poultry or fish.
There are studies that show chickens that feed on black soldier fly larvae produce more eggs.
Chiayi county magistrate (縣長), Weng, praised the project highly.
Weng plans to promote this system to all the waste management offices in Chiayi.
He said the flies are "probably the second most beneficial insect species to humanity, after bees.
能夠吃掉廚餘、減碳、製造肥料，甚至成為動物飼料。
It certainly doesn't get better than that.
這部小型風力發電機能靠車輛產生的風力發電 This small turbine can harness the power of passing cars
The wind is a great resource for energy.
Over the centuries, humans have been harnessing (駕馭) the wind for many functions.
The best example is the windmill, where people used the power of the wind to mill (研磨) grains.
Nowadays, gigantic wind turbines are installed near the coast to generate electricity.
A major downside (缺點) of wind turbines is that they don't work when there is no wind.
But a company have made a turbine that can capture the wind created by a passing car.
The turbine made by Alpha 311 is nothing like the traditional wind turbines.
Wind turbines usually look like giant electric fans.
The CEO, Thompson, said they built the first prototype (原型) during the Covid lockdown in 2020.
The Alpha 311 turbine is made of carbon fiber (碳纖維) and has a cylindrical (圓柱體) shape.
It is attached to a pole and the whole thing is 1.8 meters tall.
The advantage of its size makes it able to be installed anywhere.
When installed on a rooftop, it can create power from the wind.
When installed by the road, it can harness the air movement of passing vehicles.
Thompson said that if the turbine is installed on a highway, it can produce 30 times the power of a 300W solar panel.
The company's next step is to test the effects when the turbines are mounted onto lampposts.
Theoretically, the turbines would be able to power the street lamps immediately.
The excessive (過多的) power can go back into the grid (電網) and used for other purposes.
The turbines can do more than producing energy.
They can also be fitted with sensors to monitor (監控) the air quality or traffic flow.
The company has received numerous interests from parties around the world.
They include stadiums, factories, gas stations and many others.
So, in today's News Bites:
Chiayi Township hails new fly larvae composting system.
The larvae of the black soldier fly can eat organic waste, produce fertilizer and become animal feed.
And,
This small turbine can harness the power of passing cars.
The new turbine can be installed anywhere and capture the wind created by passing vehicles.
趣味小點 Tasty Tidbit
And in today's Tasty Tidbit…
Did you know the longest word in the English language without a vowel is "rhythms" (節奏)?
English has five vowels.
Those are A, E, I, O and U.
And now for today's joke…
What do you call a fake noodle?
An "impasta"!
HAHA! It sounds like the word "imposter" but spoken with a New York accent.
You're an "impasta", Spiderman!
And that's it for today's episode of News Bites!
If you have a fun fact or a joke you'd like to share with us, record your message and send us your Tasty Tidbit to [email protected], and you might hear it at the end of an episode!
We'll see you next time for an exciting new episode of News Bites!