|
08.08
Nanotechnology Holds Promise for Boosting Energy
Efficiency
By Chris
McManes
From rechargeable batteries to
window coatings to high-capacity electrical
wires, nanotechnology is increasingly being
employed to make a wide array of products more
energy efficient.
Congress was briefed on these
new technology applications and their potential
to improve America’s energy independence at a
session hosted by the Congressional
Nanotechnology Caucus in late July.
The event featured Dr. Wade
Adams, director of the Richard E. Smalley
Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology
at Rice University in Houston; Dr. Mark Pinto,
chief technology officer at Applied Materials,
Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif.; Joe Adiletta,
senior product manager for A123Systems of
Watertown, Mass.; and Douglas Kaempf, program
manager, Industrial Technologies Program, Office
of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE).
Before we proceed, let’s define
nanotechnology, and get a sense of the
tiny space in which it operates. According to
the IT encyclopedia Whatis.com, nanotechnology
“is a branch of engineering that deals with the
design and manufacture of extremely small
electronic circuits and mechanical devices built
at the molecular level.”
Nanotechnology takes its name
from a nanometer — one
billionth of a meter. Most nanotechnology
engineering is performed at 100 nanometers or
less. National Geographic described the
comparative size of a nanometer to a meter as
the same as that of a marble to the size of the
earth. A typical human hair is about 80,000
nanometers wide, and there are 25,400,000
nanometers in an inch.
Battery-Powered Vehicles
Before gasoline climbed to
record-high prices this summer, General Motors
and A123Systems began developing a rechargeable
battery for GM’s electric drive E-Flex system.
Based on A123Systems’ nanophosphate battery
chemistry, the lithium-ion battery cells are
going to be in the Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid
electric vehicle that GM hopes to bring to
market in late 2010.
The battery can be recharged
simply by attaching it to a common 110-volt
electrical plug. For those who drive less than
40 miles a day, the Volt will use no gasoline
and produce no produce no harmful carbon
emissions.
When compared to other
lithium-ion battery chemistries, A123Systems’
nanophosphate-based cell technology provides
higher power output, longer life and safer
operations. It is built on nanoscale materials
initially developed at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
A123Systems, founded in 2001, is
the world’s largest manufacturer of batteries
with nanophosphate chemistry. Most of the 10
million cells it produces each year are used in
rechargeable power tools.
Adiletta told congressional
staff members attending the briefing that
consumer tax credits could help motivate drivers
into purchasing plug-in hybrid electric
vehicles.
“We believe that credits and
incentives are critical to spur consumer
adoption of the technology,” he said.
Moving Energy over Wire
Rice University’s Adams
discussed how Dr. Richard Smalley
— who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in
Chemistry for discovering buckyballs (a
one-nanometer form of carbon) —
was a leading advocate of the National
Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). Established in
2001, the NNI is the federal R&D program that
coordinates multi-agency efforts in nanoscale
science, engineering and technology. The
initiative received a major boost when President
Bush signed the 21st Century Nanotechnology
Research and Development Act in December
2003.
Smalley was so well-respected by
his Rice colleagues that the Smalley Institute
for Nanoscale Science and Technology was named
after him, following his death in 2005.
Adams related how Smalley came
into the office one day in 2003 and said, “‘We
need a new vision for energy for 2050, maybe
even before that.’ And he called it the
‘distributed storage generation grid.’”
Smalley’s idea was to stop
transporting energy as mass —
coal, oil, natural gas —
and start moving it by electricity over
wire. He called this new conduction material,
made entirely from metallic single-walled carbon
nanotubes, “Armchair Quantum Wire.” NASA awarded
Rice a four-year, $11-million contract in 2005
to produce a one-meter wire prototype by 2010.
In May 2005, Smalley described
his
Armchair Quantum Wire
[www.hope.edu] as “a continuous cable
of buckytubes that we expect will conduct
electricity 10 times better than copper, yet
have only one- sixth the weight, a zero
coefficient of thermal expansion, and a tensile
strength greater than steel.
“If we succeed, we’ll be able to
rewire the world, replacing aluminum and copper
in virtually every application, and permitting a
vast increase in the capacity of the nation’s
electrical grid. That and the development of
plug-in electric hybrid vehicles will enable us
to wean ourselves away from gasoline for the
bulk of our urban transportation needs, free us
from dependency on Middle East oil, and greatly
improve the air quality in the cities throughout
the world.”
Until the wire is perfected and
manufactured on a large scale, Adams said the
transition technology is the plug-in hybrid
electric vehicle.
Nanomanufacturing Contributes
to Energy Efficiency
Nanomanufacturing has the
potential to contribute greatly to the United
States’ major energy and climate initiatives.
DOE estimates that applications in the
chemicals, refining, maritime and automotive
sectors alone could save up to 1.1 quadrillion
BTU and prevent the emissions of more than 60
million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.
(In the United States, a quadrillion is 1,000
trillion).
“There’s a great benefit to nano,”
the DOE’s Kaempf said. “For energy-efficient
products, we’ve seen nano applications going
into window coatings, lighting and lightweight
vehicles. … And we want to improve fuel cells
and supercapacitors. There are huge
possibilities.
“With the energy gains, we do
have to have the economic benefits. If you look
at just the energy sector —
energy generation, storage and efficiency
— Lux Research is
predicting that there will be over 20 billion
dollars of goods produced with nanotechnology by
2012.”
Applied Materials’ Pinto
discussed how his company uses nanomanufacturing
technology to produce equipment, services and
software products employed in fabricating
semiconductor chips, energy-efficient glass,
flat panel displays, solar photovoltaic cells
and flexible electronics.
For example, Applied Materials’
low-emission, coated glass reduces solar heat
increases in the summer and heat loss in the
winter. This decreases a homeowner or business’
heating and cooling costs.
“This environmentally friendly
glass pays for itself because of
nanomanufacturing technology,” said Pinto,
adding that the two largest markets for the
product are China and the Middle East, areas
undergoing a building boom.
Lighter Weight Equals Greater
Fuel Efficiency
A123Systems’ Adiletta also
talked about working with BAE Systems to develop
an 800-pound battery for buses to replace a
4,000-pound battery. Trimming vehicle weight is
key to increasing fuel efficiency.
“There’s a clear relationship
between vehicle weight and fuel consumption,”
Adams said. “If we go beyond thinking
lightweight to thinking ultra-lightweight with
nanocomposite technology, that’s how we’ll get
there. And we are making progress.”
Despite these composites’
lighter weight, they are much stronger. Carbon
nanotubes have twice the tensile strength of the
best carbon fiber.
“In principle, if we can make
the single-walled carbon nanotubes into these
fibers, we can go up to factors of somewhere
around 40,” Adams said. “So we could, in
principle, make extremely strong composites,
strong enough so that even a Texan in an SUV
— I have to hype on Texans
— can have as big a
vehicle as we have today but could be very light
and can use like one-eighth of the gasoline.
“And if you make it a plug-in
hybrid, the gasoline consumption would be more
like sipping gas.”
Role of the Department of
Energy
The DOE conducts research &
development to accelerate the scale-up and
commercialization of nanomanufacturing
technologies in the United States. It focuses on
applied research at both its national labs and
through cost-shared public/private partnerships
to help move products to market in 3 to 5 years.
“Our goal is to work with
industry and work with our national labs to try
to get this technology to make a difference in
consumers’ lives today,” said Kaempf, who earned
a master’s in technology management from the
University of Maryland and a bachelor’s in
electrical engineering from Penn State.
The DOE’s Industrial
Technologies Program has positioned itself to be
the federal agency investing in the application
side of nanotechnology.
“We leverage the significant
investment in nanoscience and build the
manufacturing capability to deliver products to
the American people,” Kaempf said.
Lux Research, which provides
strategic advice on emerging technologies, said
the value of goods incorporating nanotechnology
was $1.1 trillion in 2007. By 2015, it is
expected to reach nearly $4 trillion. The
federal government invested $1.4 billion in
nanotechnology research in 2007. Other nations
are increasingly investing more money in this
area.
“There’s a huge opportunity
here,” Kaempf said. “VCs (venture capitalists)
see it, we see it, the world sees it.”
Chris McManes is IEEE-USA's
public relations manager. Comments may be
submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.
|
E-mail
this page to a friend
