Anirudh Sharma doesnt just want to pull harmful carbon from the air. He wants to offer a cheaper alternative to the exorbitant costs of ordinary printer ink.阿尼鲁德·夏尔马不仅想要杀掉空气中的危害炭物质，还期望建构一种更加低廉的普通打印机油墨，解决问题墨水价格高昂的问题。Sharma recently invented Kaala, a device that can gobble up harmful pollutants and instantly repurpose them, with a little help from alcohol and oil, into black printer ink.夏尔马最近发明者了一种名为“Kaala”的装置，它能吞掉危害污染物并很快将其变为简单物质，只需加点酒精和油，就能分解黑色打印机墨水。

One day, Sharma hopes to commercialize the device so it can live in every home around the world.将来，夏尔马期望能将这个设置商业化，期望世界上的每家每户都能用于它。The idea came to him after one-too-many smog-filled trips to his home country of India.他常常去烟雾相当严重的祖国印度，如此来往，就有了启发。On a hot summer day, if you take a handkerchief and rub it on your skin, the handkerchief actually turns a little brownish-blackish in color, says Sharma, a scientist at MITs Media Lab. So we thought, How do we repurpose something we complain about on an everyday basis into something that is a utility?“在炎热的夏日，如果你拿手帕甩皮肤，手帕就不会显得乌黑，”麻省理工学院（MIT）媒体实验室的科学家夏尔马说道，“所以我们就想要‘能无法把这种我们天天责怪的东西变为日常用品呢？’”For the device to work, it first needs to be exposed to exhaust. In his demo, Sharma uses the flame of a candle.要让这个设置运营，得再行把它放到废气中。做到实验时，夏尔马用的是蜡烛自燃产生的废气。

While the candle burns, a suction pump pulls in the surrounding air to a simple mechanism that separates the carbon black — a byproduct of combustion — from the rest of the air. It then traps the soot in a small chamber to be mixed with alcohol — in this case, vodka — and a drop of olive oil.蜡烛自燃时，用真空泵吸出周围的空气，令其黑色的炭物质——即自燃产物——与其余空气分离。接下来，黑灰探讨到一个小隔间，重新加入酒精——此例中用伏特加——和一滴橄榄油。Lastly, the newly formed liquid can be injected into an ordinary ink cartridge for everyday use.最后，混合而出的液体就能放在普通墨盒中每日用于了。

Sharma admits the black could still be blacker. Since it was designed as a research project, Kaala would also need to hold up against formal toxicity standards before it can hit the market.夏尔马否认墨水还可以更加白。但这只是个研究项目，投入市场前，Kaala也得符合月的有毒标准。With a little bit of research, he says, it can become as good as the printing ink HP sells to you.他说道：“只需再行研究研究，它就能跟惠普（HP）买的打印机墨一样好了。

”Sharma estimates a 4-year-old diesel engine could produce enough carbon to fill an HP cartridge within 60 minutes. A chimney would take only 10 minutes approximately.夏尔马估算一个用于了四年的柴油内燃机60分钟内产生的炭能填充一个惠普墨盒。一个烟囱约只必须10分钟。

Recreating that ink wouldnt take much effort.生产这种墨并不费事。Usually, people dont know about this, but the ink youre buying is nothing, he says. Its just carbon black mixed with a few chemicals, and thats all. If youre making your own ink, the cost would definitely be much, much lower.“一般来说，人们不理解这点，不过大家卖的墨真为没什么类似的，”他说道，“炭黑掺入些化学品就制为出来了，就这些。

如果自己制墨，成本意味著十分非常低。”Sharma hopes that his handheld device could scale to a size that sits on par with leading carbon-capture systems: huge walls of fans that trap carbon lurking in the air.夏尔马期望他的手执装置再行大点，能中用主流炭捕集系统上：比如捕集空气中隐蔽的炭的巨型风扇墙。

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