Nanotechnology

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Nanotechnology the Key to Keeping Houston the
Energy Capital of the World
Houston Technology Center University of
Houston June 15, 2004
Wade Adams and Rick Smalley Rice University
2
World Energy
Millions of Barrels per Day (Oil Equivalent)
300 200 100 0
1860 1900 1940
1980 2020 2060
2100
Source John F. Bookout (President of Shell USA)
,Two Centuries of Fossil Fuel Energy
International Geological Congress, Washington DC
July 10,1985. Episodes, vol 12, 257-262 (1989).
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A Much Better Use for Oil than Gasoline!
Professor Mark Foster and Family (Univ. of Akron
Polymer Science Department) with all their
oil-based polymer belongings! -- Nat. Geog. June
2004
4
The ENERGY REVOLUTION (The Terawatt Challenge)
14 Terawatts 210 M BOE/day
30 -- 60 Terawatts 450 900 MBOE/day
The Basis of Prosperity 20st Century OIL
21st Century ??
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PRIMARY ENERGY SOURCESAlternatives to Oil

• TOO LITTLE
• Conservation / Efficiency -- not enough
• Hydroelectric -- not enough
• Biomass -- not enough
• Wind -- not enough
• Wave Tide -- not enough
• CHEMICAL
• Natural Gas -- sequestration?, cost?
• Clean Coal -- sequestration?, cost?
• NUCLEAR
• Nuclear Fission -- radioactive waste?,
  terrorism?, cost?
• Nuclear Fusion -- too difficult?, cost?
• Geothermal HDR -- cost ? , enough?
• Solar terrestrial -- cost ?
• Solar power satellites -- cost ?
• Lunar Solar Power -- cost ?

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• The biggest single challenge for the next few
  decades
• ENERGY
• for 1010 people
• . At MINIMUM we need 10 Terawatts (150 M
  BOE/day)
• from some new clean energy source
  by 2050
• For worldwide energy prosperity and peace we
  need it to be cheap.
• We simply can not do this with current
  technology.
• We need Boys and Girls to enter Physical
  Science and Engineering as they did after
  Sputnik.
• Inspire in them a sense of MISSION
• ( BE A SCIENTIST SAVE THE WORLD )
• We need a bold new APOLLO PROGRAM
• to find the NEW ENERGY TECHNOLOGY

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165,000 TW of sunlight hit the earth every day
8
Solar Cell Land Area Requirements
6 Boxes at 3.3 TW Each 20 TWe
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Energy Nanotech Grand Challengesfrom Meeting at
Rice University May 2003

• Photovoltaics -- drop cost by 100 fold.
• Photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to methanol.
• Direct photoconversion of light water to
  produce H2.
• Fuel cells -- drop the cost by 10-100x low
  temp start.
• Batteries and supercapacitors -- improve by
  10-100x for automotive and distributed generation
  applications.
• H2 storage -- light weight materials for
  pressure tanks and LH2 vessels, and/or a new
  light weight, easily reversible hydrogen
  chemisorption system
• Power cables (superconductors, or quantum
  conductors) with which to rewire the electrical
  transmission grid, and enable continental, and
  even worldwide electrical energy transport and
  also to replace aluminum and copper wires
  essentially everywhere -- particularly in the
  windings of electric motors and generators
  (especially good if we can eliminate eddy current
  losses).

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Energy Nanotech Grand Challenges

• Nanoelectronics to revolutionize computers,
  sensors and devices.
• Nanoelectronics based Robotics with AI to enable
  construction maintenance of solar structures in
  space and on the moon and to enable nuclear
  reactor maintenance and fuel reprocessing.
• Super-strong, light weight materials to drop cost
  to LEO, GEO, and later the moon by gt 100 x, to
  enable huge but low cost light harvesting
  structures in space and to improve efficiency of
  cars, planes, etc.
• Thermochemical processes with catalysts to
  generate H2 from water that work efficiently at
  temperatures lower than 900 C.
• Nanotech lighting to replace incandescent and
  fluorescent lights
• NanoMaterials/ coatings that will enable vastly
  lower the cost of deep drilling, to enable HDR
  (hot dry rock) geothermal heat mining.
• CO2 mineralization schemes that can work on a
  vast scale, hopefully starting from basalt and
  having no waste streams.

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One World Energy Schemefor 30-60TW in 2050The
Distributed Store-Gen Grid

• Energy transported as electrical energy over
  wire, rather than by transport of mass (coal,
  oil, gas)
• Vast electrical power grid on continental scale
  interconnecting 100 million asynchronous
  local storage and generation sites, entire
  system continually innovated by free enterprise
• Local house, block, community, business,
  town,
• Local storage batteries, flywheels, hydrogen,
  etc.
• Local generation reverse of local storage
  local solar and geo
• Local buy low, sell high to electrical power
  grid
• Local optimization of days of storage capacity,
  quality of local power
• Electrical grid does not need to be very
  reliable, but it will be robust
• Mass Primary Power input to grid via HV DC
  transmission lines from existing plants plus
  remote (up to 2000 mile) sources on TW scale,
  including vast solar farms in deserts, wind,
  NIMBY nuclear, clean coal, stranded gas, wave,
  hydro, space-based solarEVERYBODY PLAYS
• Hydrogen is transportation fuel

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CarbonNanotechnologyLaboratoryMaking
BuckytubesBe All They Can Be

• Founded Mid-2003 as a division of CNST
• Focuses SWNT Research of 10 Faculty in 6
  Departments
• Prof. Richard E. Smalley - DirectorDr. Howard K.
  Schmidt - Executive DirectorDr. Robert H. Hauge
  - Technology Director

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Why Buckytubes?
MOLECULAR PERFECTION EXTREME PERFORMANCE

• The Strongest Fiber Possible.
• Electrical Conductivity of Copper.
• Carrier Mobility Surpasses InSb GaAs.
• Thermal Conductivity of Diamond.
• The Unique Chemistry of Carbon.
• The Scale and Perfection of DNA The Fullerene
  Ideal
• The Ultimately Versatile Engineering Material

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CNL The Armchair Quantum Wire
ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY OF COPPER 1/6th THE
WEIGHT NEGLIGIBLE EDDY CURRENT LOSS
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New Energy Research Program(The Nickel Dime
Solution)

• For FY04-FY09 collect 5 cents from every gallon
  of oil product
• Invest the resultant gt 10 Billion per year
  as additional funding in frontier energy research
  distributed among DOE, NSF, NIST, NASA, and
  DoD.
• For the next 10 years collect 10 cents from every
  gallon
• invest the gt20 Billion per year in frontier
  energy research.
• Devote a third of this money to New Energy
  Research Centers
• located adjacent to major US Research
  Universities, especially Zip Code 77005.
• At worst this endeavor will create a cornucopia
  of new technologies and new industries.
• At best, we will solve the energy problem before
  2020,
• and thereby lay the basis for energy
  prosperity peace worldwide.

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Texas/Houston Frontier Research Fund

• Financed off a 5 cent per gallon gas tax
• 1 billion per year across Texas, 200
  million in Houston!!
• To fund Texas research at the frontiers of
  science
• Over 20 years makes Texas/Houston the premier
  generator of new high tech industries in Energy,
  Health, and Information
• Smalley Texas Academy of Science proposal

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By 2010, if current trends continue, over 90 of
all physical scientists and engineers in the
world will be Asians working in Asia.
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Summary and What Can We Do?

• World energy landscape will change dramatically
  over next 10-50 years
• Houston is the leader now (but will it last 10
  years?)
• Technology will surely enable the changes
• Leadership of the future energy economy is now up
  for grabs
• US Energy Policy is focused on Oil, Gas
  Hydrogen
• Oil Gas Energy Industry invests the lowest of
  any industry in RD
• Asia seems to be investing heavily for the long
  term in research and people
• Houston is poised to either lose or win the
  energy leadership race
• Nanotechnology is the key technology for future
  energy

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What Can Houston Do?

• Demonstrate political leadership
• Direct investment toward future technologies
• Expand the research development infrastructure
  of the area
• Link business to technology (HTC, HARC, Rice,
  UH..)
• Fund public/private partnerships
• Provide innovative business climate (tax,
  incentives)
• Support initiatives such as the Texas Energy
  Center, Texas Nanotechnology Initiative, TARANES
• Support and Host Energy Technology Meetings
  e.g. at Rice October 15-17, 2004

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Nano in Energy II - Solar

• Scope -- Policy, the State of the Solar
• Industry, Nanotech in Solar Energy
• October 15-17, 2004 at the Baker Institute
• 50 technology experts will lay out the
  possibilities and a path forward
• Sponsored by the Rice University Baker Institute
  for Public Policy, Center for Nanoscale Science
  and Technology, the Shell Center for
  Sustainability, and the Environmental and Energy
  Systems Institute
• Co-Sponsored by the Houston Technology Center and
  the Innovation Alliance (PCAST)

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Texas Advanced Research Alliance for
Nanostructured Energy Systems
Prof. Richard Smalley
Prof. Alex Ignatiev
The energy technologies prevalent twenty to
fifty years from now will be based on novel
materials and systems enabled by advanced
nanotechnology research today. Developing this
New Oil will require teamwork and effort not
seen since the days of Apollo. - Rick
Smalley
Prof. Alan MacDiarmid
TARANES Big Energy Starting Small
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BE A SCIENTIST -- SAVE THE WORLD