Nanoscale technology energy products

From Wise Nano

Nanoscale technology promises several advanced and even breakthrough technologies that may reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. For many of these technologies, practicality requires advanced software controls and a very low cost per feature, but not molecular manufacturing

Contents 1 Solar cells 2 Fuel cells 3 Hybrid engines 4 Nuclear batteries 5 Transmission 6 Lighting 7 Display 8 Generation 9 Heat transmission 10 Reduced demand for light 11 More efficient use of materials 12 Ubiquitous short range radio-transmitters 13 Personal climate control 14 Computation 15 Recycling 16 Durability

Solar cells

Titanium dioxide solar cells may be much cheaper and maybe more durable than today's silicon ones. Conductive carbon nanotubes may greatly increase the practicality of polymer solar cells, which can be much cheaper than current silicon cells.

About half of the cost of current home solar power installation is installation. Advanced nanotechnology with "smart" power routing should allow inexpensive incorporation of efficient solar cell technology into "conventional" roofing materials - tiles, shingles, etc - effectively eliminating the incremental cost of installation for new roof construction. Do-it-yourself, unfold or spray-on installation for existing homes should also become possible.

Fuel cells

Improved membranes will make fuel cells more efficient and durable, while using less of expensive catalyst metals. Nanomaterials may store adequate quantities of hydrogen at moderate pressure, enabling range exceeding that of traditional gas tanks.

Hybrid engines

Improved batteries may store energy with several times the density of today's lithium ion batteries, such as those claimed by altair nanotechnologies, have substantially reduced memory, reduced price, approximately 3*the energy density (about 1.5MJ/Kg vs .50MJ/Kg for today's lithium ion or .16MJ/Kg for lead acid)and orders of magnitude faster re-charge and discharge times. Toshiba plans to sell a similar batteryin 2006, though it will only store about 850MJ/Kg) Compressed carbon nanotubes can also substitute for current batteries. They have a demonstrated energy storage density of about 1.6MJ/Kg Carbon nanotube ultracapacitors may be less expensive in the short run, and have theoretical energy storage capacity of about 1MJ/kg. here is one fairly sensible account of the requirements for all-electric vehicles, and how they relate to the normal economics of technology.

Nuclear batteries

Nanolayers of alpha emitting radioisotopes can release alpha particles onto pizo-electric springs for an extremely light, long lasting, and safe alternative to the radio-thermal power source. Due to the cost of radioisotopes, this is not likely to be a common power source, but it may have applications for microbots, etc.

Transmission

Conductive carbon nanotube bundles can transmit electricity with near perfect efficiency through ballistic transport.

Lighting

Quantum dots may make led lighting with frequency combinations resembling natural sunlight and electric conversion efficiencies 10x-20x that of incandescent lights. This can reduce total demand for electricity by almost 30% in industrialised countries, and by over 50% in most countries

Display

Nanotube electron emitters for cathode ray screens, LEDs, advanced liquid crystals, and other nanotechnology displays may enable screens with some combination of the following features: arbitrary size, trivial weight, flexibility, 180% viewing angle, and trivial energy consumption

Generation

Efficient catalysts could enable hydrogen to be removed from existing fossil fuels at low cost. If this was done, fuel-cell cars could double as distributed power-plants. Otherwise, nano-materials and coatings should enable improved turbine blades. With these blades, retro-fitted power plants can run hotter, thus more efficiently.

Heat transmission

The thermal conductivity and high surface area of nanotubes allows rapid elimination of temperature gradents, and smart materials can allow usable energy to be extracted from practically any significant temperature gradient, as well as from mechanical vibrations, etc. Cool-chips greatly improve the efficiency of refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat removal from computer hardware.

Reduced demand for light

Need for lighting can be reduced in a variety of ways. Adaptive optics can be used to improve vision, especially night vision significantly. Augmented reality, either in glasses or built into car wind-shields, can provide the benefits of adaptive optics, along with radar and infra-red sensors. Such tools can be safer and more efficient than the current use of street lighting on highways. Wide-spread outdoor surveillence can likewise reduce the need for street lighting in cities. Finally, automated vehicles can potentially eliminate almost all of the risks associated with driving, and reduce the role of auto headlights to one of warning pedestrians of the car's approach.

More efficient use of materials

Manufactured goods made with better process control, internal sensors, and nanostructured materials can produce or exceed the safety and performance of current goods while having less mass. Processing of materials consumes a substantial fraction of electricity in developed countries.

Ubiquitous short range radio-transmitters

A wireless web of tiny transmitters can reduce the need to broadcast powerful radio signals. Weaker signals can be boosted more often

Personal climate control

Clothes incorporating power generation, power storage, and heat pumping technologies such as cool chips can heat or cool people directly, which is cheaper than heating or cooling large volumes of air. Low power infra-red semiconductor lasers in buildings can do the same for surface skin. For evaporative cooling in relatively dry climates, sprays can disperse microdroplets of water to cool the air. Nano-porous-filters can clean this water to avoid deposition of minerals on cooled objects.

Computation

Moore's law has historically reduced the energy consumed by a given number of computing operations. If hardware improves faster than demand increases, this should reduce energy demands. If demands increase faster than hardware improves, energy demand from computing will increase.

Recycling

RFID tags can aid automated sorting of garbage for recycling, which is often a more energy efficient source of materials than processing of ore. Catalysts or microbes can generate methane or hydrogen fuel from biological waste. Thermal depolymerisation, while not a nanotechnology, has similar applications and may develop more rapidly.

Durability

Nano-structured products may last longer than conventional products, reducing the cost of manufacturing replacements. Embedded sensors may aid in repair of such products, making repair a more practical, and more environmentally friendly option than replacement.