Support growing for federal push toward nanotech energy solutions


	Photo courtesy of Rice University Wade Adams, director of Rice University’s Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, opens an energy conference on campus aboard his Segway Human Transporter. The conference drew about 450 attendees.

Aug. 13, 2003 - In Washington, they liken it to the Manhattan Project. In Houston, they prefer an Apollo Program metaphor. But the strategists behind two movements to make energy a priority agree on the need for an all-out commitment akin to efforts to build an atomic bomb during World War II and the space race that followed.

Both the research branch of the Department of Energy and a consortium of scientists, industry leaders and policy-makers attending a summit at Rice University identified nanotechnology as a keystone to clean, efficient and affordable energy.

Organizers of the Rice symposium could complete a draft report by the end of this month, said Wade Adams, director of Rice’s Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST). The DOE’s Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee released its report in late 2002.

The findings could provide the framework for a program to improve or replace today’s energy technologies. The advancements could be as revolutionary as space-based solar power or as mundane as nanocoatings for oil drill bits, according to presenters at the Rice summit titled, “Energy and Nanotechnology: Strategy for the Future.”

Speakers at the May event discussed everything from fission to fuel cells and included Jeremy Rifkin, author of “The Hydrogen Economy,” and Dean Kamen, inventor and chairman of Segway LLC. While they clashed on specifics, several experts agreed the nation and world will face an energy crisis by midcentury if population, usage and supply projections hold.

“Our goal was to stir it up and educate people,” said Adams. CNST and Rice’s public policy, energy and entrepreneurship institutes hosted the event, which drew about 450 people. “The focus was on the technology challenges across the board.”

The summit was a follow-up to a 2002 regional conference of the National Nanotechnology Initiative, where energy was identified as critical to the multistate area. Houston considers itself the energy capital and a contender for that title in nanotechnology. Attendees included a number of energy professionals, investors and people curious about nanotechnology.

“We wanted to quantitatively explain what the problem is,” said Richard Smalley, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist at Rice and prominent supporter of nanotechnology. He began advocating nanotechnology to meet energy needs more than a year ago. “Even the
people in industry found it a revelation.

“The problem is, how do you solve it,” he said, referring to growing worldwide demand for energy. “You can’t solve it just by being good. You need new technology.”

The Houston group is calling for a commitment of billions of dollars from the federal government to develop nanotechnology for energy applications. They also are pushing for more funds to educate the next generation of scientists because energy “will be their problem that they have to solve,” Adams said.

They expect to circulate their report among government and industry leaders. It is likely to include support for developing smart distributed energy networks, an approach that Smalley began to embrace after reviewing conference video. Power point presentations and a Web cast from the event are available online at http://cohesion.rice.edu/centersandinst/cnst/whatwedo.cfm?doc_id=2937.

“I’ve had a wonderful time going to the conference about four times,” Smalley said. “I’ve learned things every time.”

Their recommendations will dovetail with those of the DOE committee, said Smalley, who was among its committee leaders. The next step has yet to be decided, but he envisioned the DOE spearheading a drive through its five nanoscale research centers.

Prof. Smalley's latest big idea:
Nano-energy will save the Earth

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