Onions make you cry, add flavor to food and are touted for their medicinal benefits. Now the vegetable has another use -powering up green energy.

洋葱可以剌激得人流泪，可以在烹制食物时作为调料增加香味，而且它还有医学价值。现在，这种蔬菜又有了另外一项功能——发电。

A new system debuts that converts onion juice into electricity at Gills Onions, the largest fresh onion processor in the United States.

美国最大的洋葱加工商Gills Onions推出了一个新的发电系统，可以将洋葱汁转换为电能。

The Oxnard, California -based company expects its new onion-fueled power to reduce its electric bill by $700,000 a year and cut its annual greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30,000 tons.

据悉，这种用洋葱发电的新系统有望每年为该公司节省70万美元的电费，还可为公司减少高达3万吨的温室气体排放。

The happy ending to this green energy tale, however, started with another question: how to get rid of onion waste.

不得不说，既经济，又环保，这个绿色能源的故事结局很圆满。但是谁能想到，这一想法最初却源于如何处理洋葱废料这个令人头痛的问题。

"When we peel an onion, 35 to 40 percent of the onion comes off before we have a usable onion. That's the top, tail and skin around the onion before you get to the meat," said Steven Gill, co-owner of the 25-year-old company.

史蒂文·吉尔，这家己创立25年之久的公司的合伙人说：当我们要食用一个洋葱时，我们首先要去掉它的头、尾，以及剥离外表的皮层，这样我们才能得到洋葱的果肉；而在此期间洋葱已产生了35%-40%的废料。

They used to haul the waste to the fields for composting, but that became a problem. Ten years ago. Gill started looking at technology for a solution, including microturbines.

他们通常是把这些废料拉到野外作为肥料，但是这也是个问题。10年前，吉尔就开始尝试利用科技来解决这一问题，这当中就包括微型燃气轮机的设计。

"We ended up shredding the skins as they come out of the plant and extracting all the juice. which is very high in sugars. and bacteria love that stuff." Gill said.

“当洋葱皮被剥离之后，我们就将其粉碎，然后在其中提取汁液。但这种洋葱汁含糖量极高，很容易滋生细菌。”吉尔说道。

In the new system, bacteria produce methane5 gas from the juice. The gas then goes to two 300 kilowatt fuel cells, creating enough power for 460 homes. The company expects to get 35 to 40 percent of its electricity from the on-site generator.

而在新系统中，这些细菌可以通过洋葱汁产生甲饶，然后这些气体通过两块 300千瓦的燃料电池，其产生的电量足够460户居民的日常用电。该绿色发电系统有望承担该公司 35%-40%的用电量。