Chapter 2 Nanotechnology and Our Energy Challenge

The late Nobel laureate Richard E. Smalley said, “It is very clear to many of us, including leading scientists and policy makers, that if oil remains the basis for prosperity for the world throughout this century, it cannot be a very prosperous or happy century.

Sustainable energy 可持续发展能源

Renewable energy 可再生能源

According to the International Energy Agency, over 1 billion people will still be without modern electricity in 2030, mainly in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The most developed countries, with 13% of the world’s population, account for half of the world’s annual energy use.

Developing countries, such as China and India, are rapidly increasing the energy consumption as the living standards are improving.

Most scientists convince that fossil fuels are limited resources and continuing burning oils will cause serious global climate change.

If new carbon-free energy is not developed, the atmospheric CO2 will reach 750 ppm by the end of this century. It will cause the melting of ice at South pole and many coastal cities will be submerged below sea level.

Dr Richard Smalley was a leading nanotechnology supporter. The Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science was set up in Rice University after his name. He gave a famous speech at Rice University in 2004.

We need to find an economic alternative to oil. We need a new basis for energy prosperity. Ten billion people on the planet – that is our challenge. I believe this challenge is vastly greater than we admit. Between where we are right now and where we need to get to, we really have to find a new oil. I do not mean a liquid; I mean a technology that makes us energy rich again in environmentally acceptable fashion for 10 billion people. Between here and where we need to be, there is something like ten miracles 奇迹 . The good news is that miracles do happen. I have been involved in physical sciences long enough to see many of them happen.

Worldwide energy use is at the rate of 13-14 terawatts 兆瓦 (1012), the equivalent of burning 200-210 million barrels of oil per day.

There are many ways nanotechnology may play a role in finding solutions to the energy problem.

Nanotechnology can provide stronger but lighter materials to build vehicles and to provide safer and more cost-effective storage for hydrogen fuels.

A laboratory is developing titanium dioxide nanotube arrays for the generation of hydrogen by splitting water using sunlight, which will be a clean energy resource.

Lower costs of photovoltaic 光伏 solar energy by tenfold

Achieve commercial photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to methanol

Create a commercial process for direst photoconversion of light and water to produce hydrogen

Lower the costs of fuels by ten- to a hundred-fold and create new, studier materials

Improve the efficiency/storage capacity of batteries and supercapacitors 超级电容器 by ten- to a hundred-fold for automotive and distributed generation applications

NanoSafe battery packs Electric car powered by NanoSafe battery

The NanoSafe battery is a combination of high capacity, fast charge, and large number of charge cycles makes new transportation systems practical. In the past, battery operated buses have been unsuccessful, since the bus had to carry enough battery power to run the bus the entire day, and then be charged at night. This was primarily because the batteries take several hours to recharge. Additionally, the batteries only lasted maybe 500 to 1000 charge cycles, and then need to be replaced. These factors combined made it impractical to used battery powered buses.

NanoSafe batteries deliver power per unit weight and unit volume several times that of conventional lithium ion batteries. Altairnano laboratory measurements indicate power density as high as 4000 W/Kg and over 5000W/litre. By using nano-titanate materials as the negative electrode material, the formation of a Solid Electrolyte Interface (SEI) is eliminated, preventing the risks of fire or explosions.

Supercapacitors Bus 超级电容 巴士，在巴士站上落客时，可以快速充电，充电 30 秒就可以行走 1 公里。

Create new lightweight materials for hydrogen storage for pressure tanks, LH2 vessels, and an easily reversible hydrogen chemisorption system

Develop power cables, superconductors, or quantum conductors made of new nanomaterials to rewire the electricity grid and enable long distance, continental and even international electrical energy transport, and reducing or eliminating sag failures, eddy current losses, and resistive losses by replacing copper and aluminium wires

Enable nanoelectronics 纳米电子 to revolutionize computers, sensors and devices for the electricity grid and other applications

Develop thermochemical processes with catalyst to generate hydrogen from water at temperatures lower than 900 C and at commercially viable costs

Create super-strong, lightweight materials that can be used to improve efficiency in cars, planes and space travel; the latter, if combined with nanoelectronics-based robotics, possibly enabling solar structures on the moon or in space

Create efficient lighting to replace incandescent and fluorescent lights

Develop nanomaterials and coatings that will enable deep drilling at lower costs to tap energy resources, including geothermal heat, in deep strata

Create CO2 mineralization methods that can work on a vast scale without waste streams (possibly basalt-based)

Hydrogen Fuel Cars 氢燃料汽车 Hydrogen cars are not only the future, they are here, now. When hydrogen cars become the status quo, the U. S. can lessen its dependence upon foreign oil, achieve lower prices at the fuel pumps and cut down on the greenhouse gases that produce global warming. The future of hydrogen cars is not a pipe dream, as there are already many hydrogen fuel cell cars on the roads. California, Japan and the European Union (especially Germany) have many hydrogen fuel cars being used as fleet vehicles now.

Nanotechnology and Renewable Energy

China , with the highest energy-use growth rate in the world, has set 10% renewable energy by 2010.

Today’s photovoltaic solar cells absorb a photon of sunlight, the energy gets converted to one electron, and the rest is lost as heat. New nanotechnology method could boost the efficiency from today’s solar cells of 20-30% to 65%.

Solid-state lighting – light emitting diodes (LEDs) 发光二极管 and lasers are ten times more efficient and two times brighter than incandescent and fluorescent lights respectively. Nano-layered solid-state lighting (SSL) is much more efficient.

photovoltaic solar cells

Smalley Electricity Vision

One attractive candidate for the ‘new oil’ fuel of the coming century is electricity.

The biggest problem of electricity is storing it.

Conclusion

Many talented and motivated young people might well find the world’s energy challenge sufficiently compelling to attract them into careers in science and engineering.