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NanotechnologyInvestment.com Reports: Nanotechnology – A
Driving Force Behind Renewable Energy and Homeland Defense
Across the spectrum of industries major players such as
Boeing, and Ford fund research and incorporate innovative developments into
their products.
www.NanotechnologyInvestment.com
October 2005
The emerging science of nanotechnology (the manufacturing of products one
atom at a time) is revolutionizing a wide spectrum of industries with
businesses and investors rushing to capitalize on the trend. Nanotechnology
provides potential pioneering and inventive solutions in fields as diverse
as Renewable Energy and Homeland Defense. Innovations such as organic solar
cells and nano particle ‘bomb sniffing’ technologies evidence just how much
nanotechnology is spearheading developments across the board.
A report by Research & Markets ("World Nanotechnology Market - An industry
Update (2005)") predicts that nanotechnology will amount to a $1,000 billion
industry in the world economy by 2010. The US government has increased their
nanotech spending to $3bn per year, while venture capital funds also
continue to grow. The National Nanotechnology Initiative has confirmed a
$982m fund for nanotech R&D in 2006.
The Market According to the Insiders
“Hydrogen as an energy source and homeland security represent the sectors
which are currently receiving the most government funding to drive research
and manufacturing activities,” said Kirk Benson, Chief Executive Officer and
Chairman of the Board for Headwaters Inc. (NYSE: HW). “Medical and energy
applications currently represent the greatest opportunities for stock market
investors.”
Keith Blakely, CEO of NanoDynamics Inc. agreed that the energy and security
sectors are where a lot of government funding is headed. “The sectors that
are doing well in obtaining government grants are in the health care, energy
and electronics/semiconductor sectors where the improvements and
enhancements resulting from the use of nanotechnology processes and
materials will have the greatest impact on national security and future
economic vitality and growth.”
Darrell Brookstein, Managing Director, The Nanotech Company, LLC (a first
tier investment and advisory firm in nanotech and other small technologies),
believes that, “the most hype over the next 18 months will be in display
technologies using carbon nanotubes, and giants, Samsung and Motorola, among
others are leading the charge. However, currently the greatest longer term
opportunity is in the biotech sector, where companies like American
Pharmaceutical Partners and pSivida hold great promise. Companies working in
alternative energies and health sciences are getting access to the most
government grant money.
“Nanotech (I prefer the term small technologies which includes
microelectronics, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems and microfluidics, as
well as nanotechnology) as an investment category,” continued Brookstein.
“is in a bear market that will end between mid 2006 and the end of 2008.
From that point a first major boom of what will ultimately be a decades long
series of booms and busts will ensue, very possibly triggered by the arrival
of carbon nanotube display TVs and computer monitors at Circuit City.”
Market Drivers
While economic factors (including a reduction of North America’s reliance on
foreign sources of fuel and energy) will most certainly dictate the
direction and efforts of nanotech research, societal and environmental
concerns also drive this market.
In the renewable energy arena, researchers from the New Mexico State
University and Wake Forest University have developed an organic solar cell
technology, which features a landmark solar energy efficiency level of 5.2%
(traditional silicon panels average 12% energy conversion efficiency). The
group’s organic solar cells are manufactured from a polymer blend plastic
that is relatively inexpensive, flexible, can be wrapped around structures
or even applied like paint.
Research into organic solar cells has traditionally faced the hurdle of not
being able to achieve energy effiencies of greater than 4%. This
breakthrough (which market participants thought was at least a decade away)
however brings a viable solar solution much closer to fruition. It is now
predicted that it may be only four or five years before organic solar cells
become commercially available. This breakthrough is an outgrowth of the
group’s work in developing high-tech coatings for military aircraft.
Headwaters Inc. (NYSE: HW)’s Kirk Benson told NanotechnologyInvestment.com
that, “the drivers in our company are both economical and environmental.
Many of our business units strive to achieve green products, as well as
cleaning up the environment by using waste coals that have been left behind
in waste ponds all over the country.”
The company’s Energy Services division combines waste coals with a
proprietary chemical reagent to conglomerate the coal, which is then shipped
to utilities and burned to produce electricity. “We are also building the
first clean coal facility here in central Utah,” continued Benson. “It is
slated to be finished by the end of November. We will have the ability to
clean the ash out of coal that is not usable at most utilities. Cleaning the
coal also reduces some of the mercury and sulphur output levels. Our fly ash
product is a very green product. We utilize a recyclable product that would
normally be land filled. For every ton of cement that is made in this
country, one ton of CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere. Using fly ash
instead of Portland cement mitigates that problem.”
Headwaters Inc. is also planning to construct an ethanol plant jointly with
Great River Energy in North Dakota. “By using the waste heat generated by
the GRE utility there should be a noticeable savings in the cost of
producing the ethanol. We are currently working on a coal drying technology
for Great River Basin coals as well.”
The Ford, Boeing, NWU Nanotech Alliance
The Ford Motor Company and Boeing recently announced plans to form an
alliance with Northwestern University to research and develop commercial
nanotechnology applications. Ford and Boeing will each provide three years’
worth of financial backing; Ford will provide one full time employee (the
industrial alliance coordinator) to work on the project and the University
will provide administration via the Robert R. McCormick School of
Engineering and Applied Science.
The project will focus on clean fuel burning hybrid cars, as well as
developments in specialty metals, thermal materials, coatings and sensors.
Ford’s Focus
John Ginder, Acting Manager of The Physical and Environmental Sciences
Department, with Ford Motor Company, noted that Ford has seen a huge
explosion of interest in, and funding for, nanotechnology research from
various venues (federal governments, academia, industry). “We think that,
clearly, there is a lot of opportunity for us in the area of new materials,
new processes, electronic systems and so forth. Therefore, we entered into
this alliance in order to be better connected to an understanding of where
the best opportunities are for Ford Motor Company and Boeing.”
According to Ginder, the choice of Northwestern as a partner in this venture
was due to the fact that the University already boasts a strong institution
in the area of materials research (they are routinely ranked in the top two
institutions in the country) and the fact that they have already a
well-established nanotechnology research infrastructure. Northwestern has
strengths in some of the disciplines, which have traction with both Boeing
and Ford: lightweight materials, metal composites, polymer composites,
nanotribology, lubrication, and friction modification.
“This alliance represents a great opportunity for both Ford and Boeing,”
continued Ginder, “as we will now have access to dozens of world-class
researchers in the various aspects of nanotechnology and nano materials.
This alliance also cements our ties with Boeing. We have had a formal
relationship with them for over a decade, but this will help to strengthen
the researcher-to-researcher contacts in a broader spectrum. Our path of
interactions have been more focused on ergonomic issues and this alliance
will allow us to focus more on other opportunities in the areas of materials
or energy.”
“We have all read news reports about the health of the auto industry, but
for those of us in research, this is a very exciting time due to emerging
developments in propulsion technology. The emergence of hybrid vehicles, the
drive toward clean diesel technology (which we at Ford are bullish on),
ultimately the development of hydrogen powered vehicles, which Ford has a
strong leadership position in, and eventually fuel cells.”
“As our chairman and CEO Bill Ford Junior has said,” continued Ginder, it is
our aim that half of the products that we sell will be available in a hybrid
version by the end of the decade. I know that my colleagues are working hard
to achieve that goal right now.”
The Benefits For Boeing
John Belk, Nanotechnologist for Boeing, told NanotechnologyInvestment.com
that before the beginning of the year the coordinators will have prepared a
project portfolio of research topics that the Alliance plans to cover. Belk
explained that through this alliance Boeing would receive the benefit of
more than twice the amount of money that they are putting into it,
leveraging the investments of both Ford and Northwestern University.
“Boeing,” he added, “also benefits from access to some of the brightest
minds on the planet.”
Specifically, Ford and Boeing manufacture structures that need to be light,
resulting in products exhibiting more efficient fuel mileage, that can carry
larger payloads (people, cargo, munitions), or to provide greater range for
both the military and the commercial products. Ford and Boeing have similar
goals of improved safety, quality, affordability, and performance that the
research coming from this alliance will hopefully allow them to accomplish.
“Both of our companies,” said Belk, “are also interested in new paint
technologies (the coloring or aesthetics of internal or internal surfaces of
vehicles), as well as electronics for control panels and environmental
safety and health issues. There is no end of the aspects of nanotechnology
that we are interested in.”
Nanotech in Defense
Nanotechnology is tailor made for the defense industry, with research being
done on biodetection, communications, alternative energies, weapons
manufacturing, and improved manufacturing and production materials, to name
a few. It was announced at the beginning of October that the U.S. Senate had
approved at least $109m in funding for defense related nanotechnology R&D in
the state of Oregon. The funds are included in the 2006 Defense Spending
bill. The Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute will receive
$11.5m of these funds. The U.S. Senate also appropriated $15m in funds for a
network of nanotech research centers in Houston, Texas. The University of
Texas, the University of Houston and Rice University will run the centers.
Currently, several defense related solutions are edging closer to becoming
viable, commercially available products. Northwestern University’s Center
for Quantum Devices recently announced their development of solar-blind
avalanche photodiodes, which when properly optimized would create
inexpensive universal detection systems for biological attacks. This
technology also has the potential to be utilized in deployment of systems
for secure battlefield communication.
Advance Nanotech, a provider of financing and support services for
nanotechnology R&D recently announced a $1m increase in their financing
commitments to Owlstone Nanotech. This brings Owlstone to $3m of financing
from Advanced Nanotech, and the company will utilize the funding to develop
a technology called BiMAT, which is expected to aid in the early detection
of Avian Influenza (bird flu) in humans as well as variety of infectious
diseases in animals and people. The plan is that BiMAT will allow first
responders to instantly analyze microscopic amounts of biological material
on site, eliminating the need to send samples to a lab for analysis.
The BiMAT technology (sensors incorporating thin film polysilicon
transistors deposited on lightweight, inexpensive substrates) will be used
to develop integrated, low cost and disposable sensors and sensor arrays for
point of care diagnostics, clinical monitoring and biomolecular research.
The Right Tools for the Job
No industry prospers and develops without the proper tools for the job.
According to the above-mentioned report by Research & Markets, the demand
for Nanoscale materials, tools and devices is forecast to reach $28.7
billion by 2008. Tools such as atomic force microscopes, laser tweezers, and
nanoscale plate stretchers are in high demand.
Last year Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO) and The Dow Chemical Company
received a NIST ATP (U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of
Standards and Technology Advanced Technology Program) grant for $6.6m to
develop new nanotechnology tools for quantitative nanomechanical analysis.
Debra Wasser, SVP, IR and Corporate Communications for Veeco said, “The
nanomaterials market has been identified by Dow and others as a significant
market opportunity, but currently tools do not exist which can perform
quantitative measurements. Not having the right tools represents a
bottleneck in the development and manufacturing of commercial nanomaterials.”
“As the world's leading provider of atomic force microscopes (AFM),”
continued Wasser, “Veeco has exposure into all fields of nanoscience. Our
tools enable scientific advancements, but we also will specifically design
tools which address certain applications that researchers are working on –
the development of our tools is a two-way effort.”
Veeco’s atomic force and scanning probe microscopes are used widely in
university and research applications in a broad range of areas - life
science, polymers, electrochemistry, photonics, electronic materials and
nanoscience. In addition to nanomaterials, Wasser stated that Veeco has
identified the nano-bio market as an emerging industrial market requiring
new products and solutions to meet scientific challenges. “We are looking at
developing new and/or hybrid instruments for interfacing with the nano-bio
world, application specific tools and more automation and data analysis
based systems. Application areas could include medical devices, cosmetic,
tissue or drug development areas.”
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