Nano & Cleantech Blog : Nanotechnology Lawyers & Attorneys : Foley & Lardner Law Firm : Clean Technology, Green Energy

Join nanotech and cleantech industry leaders for the 9th Annual NanoBusiness Alliance Conference taking place September 27 - 28, 2010 at the McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. This program will be held concurrently with the annual Water Innovations Alliance conference. Keynote speakers include William Moffitt, President & CEO of Nanosphere, Fabien Cousteau, Explorer and Aquatic Environmentalist, Kelly Carnes, President and CEO of TechVision21, and George Thompson, Government Programs Manger of Intel.

Our panel at 2:00pm on Monday, September 27, NNI’s Revised Commercialization Strategy: Know the Risks Involved to Safeguard Your IP, will address strategies for safeguarding your IP as you leverage NNI funding opportunities to reach the marketplace. The pending National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) Strategic Plan revision is considered to offer more share of the $1.8 billion projected budget on the transfer of new technologies into the commercialization path to nanotechnology and cleantech innovation in the coming year. Increased support of university-industry collaboration as been slated as a possible avenue of such acceleration.

So as not to jeopardize your IP rights, interested parties should understand the requirements and risks in leveraging this new avenue of funding. Join Foley IP and business attorneys, Dr. Steve Rutt, Dr. Jeff Lomprey, and Sven Riethmueller along with special guests Neil Kane, President of Advanced Diamond Technologies and Steve Wasko of Wasko & Associates, for an interactive discussion addressing highlights such as:

• Setting up subsidiaries or other structures to take advantage of government grant and project opportunities
• Business innovation grants and restrictions by governmental regulation 
• Bayh-Dole, IP and licensing rights for federally funded projects 
• Working with universities/other research centers and their tech 
• Negotiating the deal (considering the short–term and the long-term strategies) 
• Reasonable licensing and royalty structures

To register or for more details regarding the conference, please visit the NanoBusiness Alliance conference Web site.

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Nanotech and cleantech innovation have important national and international implications. It's global! However, regional and state interests are also critically important. For example, my impression is that regional and state interests tend to focus more acutely on job creation. They are practical. In these troubled economic times, nanotech and cleantech research funding, whether national or state, will need to demonstrate its connection with job creation, avoiding platitudes. 

Personally, I like to follow Pennsylvania, where I grew up and later went to grad school at Penn State. One great site to follow Pennsylvania's development is www.keystoneedge.com. This site tracks economic developments within Pennsylvania, many of them linked to nanotech and cleantech innovation. Many also show important links between state funding and the private sector. Examples of recent, exciting developments in the keystone state for cleantech and nanotech include:

1.  Pocono Raceway recently introduced its solar farm, the largest solar farm located at a stadium in the world! Covering over 25 acres, 39,690 solar panels are located outside on (former) parking lot space. This is said - again - to be the largest stadium solar farm in the world, the largest Pennsylvania solar farm, and the 10th largest solar farm in the U.S. Apparently, anyone using an electrical outlet at the site will be using solar power. This was a nice example connecting car racing with clean energy! And innovative use of large seemingly useless tracks of land.

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The X PRIZE Foundation announced this week $1.4M in prize money for developing new ocean oil spill cleanup technology.  http://www.xprize.org/media-center/press-release/x-prize-foundation-announces-wendy-schmidt-oil-cleanup-x-challenge.

Will nanotechnology play a role for any team that elects to pursue the prize?

We applaud this development.  We also note some sense of feeling:  "it is about time."  

The "prize approach" is an important aspect of innovation policy, particularly where a certain sector of technology has been generally ignored and innovation is "stuck" (like oil spill cleanup).

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Recent news confirms that electric cars also need innovation in advanced structural materials, particularly carbon fiber. For example, the Economist reports that BMW plans to launch a new plug-in electric car in 2013 including carbon fibers as a core structural material (see July 10, 2010 issue, page 78; see additional reporting).

Carbon fiber comprises small fibers, not quite nanoscale, e.g, seven microns thick, which are processed into yarns and materials which are lighter and stronger than steel. For example, carbon fibers are used in race cars to protect drivers. They can be used in aircraft wings and mountain bikes, etc. Trust us: the defense department has interest in these materials. 

Hence, the U.S. government should continue to promote both fundamental and applied advances in carbon fiber technology and advanced structural materials.

Better nanochemistry and nanomaterials in batteries is critical, as we have stressed.  But ....

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2010 is now more than half over, and cleantech continues to progress at a startling rate during this hot summer.   The Gulf oil spill flow is stopped for now; but there is more.

Last week, for example, President Obama made another visit (his fourth) to a manufacturing facility in Holland, Michigan where electric vehicles and advanced batteries are dreamed of and made. Moreover, the Department of Energy also released last week a report on the massive, billion dollar governmental efforts to promote electric vehicles and advanced batteries. 

Putting battery technology into perspective, also, is a new book, The Battery, How Portable Power Sparked a Technological Revolution, Henry Schlesinger, Harper-Collins, 2010. This is a very readable book, designed for the general reader (although Schlesinger arguably spends too much time detailing how battery technology developed from 1800-1950 compared to explaining the more recent and current developments integral to our lives). 

More perspective: ...

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The Washington Post reported this week how the federal government (and the governed private sector) failed to learn enough and take sufficient action following the Exxon Valdez spill twenty years ago.  In particular, official recommendations were made twenty years ago after the Valdez spill to fund research and development to improve oil cleanup following spills.   Cleanup technology had stagnated, it was found twenty years ago, and the government needed to get active on spill cleanup technology.  So what has been done in the subsequent twenty years?  Not enough, according to the Post. 

What was the role of nanotechnology during this time?  During....

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The warm summer months have officially arrived, which means many people are compiling their summer reading lists for the beach, pool, or just sitting at home and enjoying a good book. Quench your thirst for knowledge about water with some of these books, magazines, and articles.

Robert Glennon's new book Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It is an excellent read. He not only discusses the water problems facing us, but he also offers some potential solutions. Why is it that Las Vegas, Nevada, a city built in the dessert, has lush golf courses, fountains, canals, and a seemingly endless ability to find water where none exists? Read the book and find the answer.

No one interested in the topic of water (and no one should not be interested in this critical topic) should miss the April 2010 National Geographic special edition on water. Interesting and informative stories and analysis; useful facts; great pictures; and helpful graphics. Did you know that 100 gallons of water costs $3.43 in Copenhagen; $1.65 in San Diego; and $0.05 in Buenos Aires?

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The news today was good for cleantech: in Switzerland, a solar powered plane heroically piloted by André Borschberg and powered by 12,000 solar cells was flown for more than 24 hours! Borschberg’s team apparently is pushing solar powered airflight as part of a larger push for renewable energy, but not as a short term solution to energy problems.

This startling cleantech good news connected nicely...

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The PTO continues to execute on its Green Patent Pilot Program, recently releasing statistics in a report dated June 28, 2010. However, this program now more than a half year old appears to continue to suffer from insufficient use and needs further adapting to customer needs, based on these new PTO statistics. With the December deadline quickly approaching, time is running out...

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Tesla Motors, leading seller of luxury electric vehicles, is directly located at the intersection of nanotechnology and cleantech (even though few associate Tesla with nanotech).  For exampe, lithium ion batteries found in the Tesla cars will continue to advance only with continuing advances in nanotechnology and advanced materials.  This week, Tesla's IPO after two days is off to a good start - good !  But....

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Today, the Supreme Court ruled in an important case with energy implications and in a way that raises an ounce of nostalgia (see below).  The case is Bilski v. Kappos, 561 U.S. ____ (2010).  Informally, in a nutshell, a patent applicant led by one innovator Bilski et al. attempted to patent a business method style claim with application in energy markets.  The PTO ruled he could not patent this invention because the subject was not within the scope of the patent system.  The Federal Circuit agreed.  Now, the Supreme Court also agrees.  With all this agreement, why the "fuss"?

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"Water promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century: the precious commodity that determines the wealth of nations." (Fortune Magazine, May 15, 2000)

  For most people in the world, turning on a faucet in the kitchen to obtain unlimited clean drinking water is an unavailable luxury. As noted by FreeDrinkingWater.com, the World Health Organization states an alarming fact that 3.4 million people die each year from waterborne diseases. With oil-tainted bays and rivers and ever depleting fresh water supplies, the world is starting to truly appreciate that water is, indeed, a precious commodity. The demand for water continues to grow because of population growth and industrial expansion. Meanwhile, the world's fresh water supply is shrinking due to pollution, draining of underground aquifers, and climate change. With increasing demand and decreasing supply, water is quickly becoming one of the largest economic growth sectors in the world.

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Technology transfer - which sometimes some might venture to be a dry, legal subject for lawyers - is now close to a major news story.  Kevin Costner, of course, has been in the headline news concerning his company's technology for separating oil and water for help in the current, still growing Gulf disaster.   

Costner's company (or companies) apparently owns or licenses a series of patents related to the centrifugation technology (e.g., see US Patent Nos. 4,959,158; 5,571,070; 5,591,340; 5,762,800;  5,908,376; and 6,363,611). The original '158 patent traces back to the Energy Department's Idaho National Laboratory and inventor Dave Meikrantz. The technology transfer from federal lab to Costner's company was even highlighted as a leading example in the book Technology Transfer for Entrepreneurs: A Guide to Commercializing Federal Laboratory Innovations by Clifford Gross and Joseph Allen (2003).  These patents were commercialized in 1990's in response to the Valdez oil spill disaster.

Nanotechnology also enters this picture because Costner's new company, Ocean Therapy Solutions (OTS), is linked with UCLA Professor Eric M.V. Hoek, who pioneers nanocomposite membranes. The membranes can be used to further purify materials.  In addition to OTS, Costner is also linked to Costner Instrustries. 

Movie stars and science: a combination which we and oil companies will continue to watch!   

Stay tuned for these - yes, exciting - technology transfer developments.  Hopefully, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will experience a boom in filings for oil spill technology developments.

While the patented centrifuge technology may be small in relation to the massive scale of this disaster (How many of Costner's centrifuges will it take? As skeptics have pointed out.), this story would seem to be a step in the right direction. The story represents the creative potential of federal lab technology transfer, if conducted correctly (Costner has complained about how the technology was not adopted years ago when it should have been.). The assertion to be tested is that cleanup at the source, using technology such as the centrifuges, is far cheaper and more effective than cleaning up shorelines if the oil is allowed to spread without control.

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The cleantech movement will continue to be "fueled" by negative events such as the current, unprecedented oil “spill” disaster in the Gulf. The public continues to watch this spill with profound interest and strong emotion. The million-billion-now trillion-dollar question: How can technology be used to solve problems related to oil spills? Worse yet: Oil spills from thousands of feet below the water surface? Hopefully, relevant persons in industry and government regulatory agencies are reading the patent literature. Hopefully, the patent system can provide the right incentives to develop technology for the public good and for protection of the environment.

For example, a preliminary review showed that only 68 U.S. patent publications – not many really - recite the term “oil spill$” in the abstract or claims. Of these, only ten use the term “offshore.”

Patent publications range from “Sea Dragon” (USPatPub 2002/0161272) to “Containment Boom” (USPatPub 2004/0120770) to “Submersion Drum Skimmer” (USPatPub 2002/0000411). Some interesting reading can be found here.

One caught my eye, for example. The patent publication “Quick Actuator” (USPatPub 2009/0152487) is succinctly drafted with one claim and few words. It says (emphases added):

Abstract

“An actuator designed to open and close valves easier. Preferably metal, a user can engage the actuator by either a rotating means or manually by hand. Thereby making it possible to engage a stuck actuator in the event of an emergency. Its unique star patterned sleeve makes it impossible easily possible. Simply by slipping and impact gun's socket over the star patterned sleeve and engaging the impact. It's designed mainly for underwater use in the ocean, where salt water corrodes and jams virtually everything it comes in contact with. Thus will help in the prevention of a major oil spill or natural gas leak. …

Conclusion, Ramifications, and Scope

Accordingly, the reader can see that the Quick Actuator closures of the various embodiments can be used to open and close valves more efficiently, can help in the prevention of major spill, it can be turned either by rotating means or manually by hand. Major oil companies will want the Quick Actuator in their oil spill. It will prevent disasters and save money on paying a diving company to go underwater and operate these valves.

*****************************************************************

Indeed. Perhaps – one can hope - solutions to disastrous problems could flow from one or more patent descriptions.  We can anticipate a boom in oil spill-related patent filings?

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Biofuels and biomass technology continue to be hot in the cleantech sector this year.

The Obama Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture continue to promote advanced biofuels and now, in an effort to craft useful policy, they welcome comments from the public. See April 19, 2010 developments wherein the federal government is receiving public comments for three biofuel loan guarantee and payment programs.

Additionally, the patent filings in the area are increasingly substantial. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) patent publication program began in 2001 and with that came a start-up period for all the applications to be published. While the success of patents in this area of technology took several years to gain traction, the past couple years have seen double and even triple increases as reflected in the data below.

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Foley's Rewards and Risks of “Green” Web Conference series will explore ways for executives in green technology industries to identify and leverage market opportunities while navigating legal and regulatory uncertainties.

In our first installment on May 11, 2010, “Where Innovation Is Meeting Investment,” we will reveal U.S. innovation trends based on issued green technology patents and garner insights from a leading global investor in the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries, Good Energies. The discussion will include:

• Innovation landscape — white space versus over-saturation
• How investors assess investment opportunities
• Which green technology sectors appear likely to attract investment in the near to mid-term
• Financing and IP strategies for green technology companies at different life cycle stages

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December 8, 2009 marked the advent of the PTO’s Green Technology Pilot Program which sought to expedite the examination of patent applications directed to certain green inventions. Nearly four months later, internal remarks from the new PTO Commissioner, David Kappos, reveal that the PTO has confirmed 450 of 850 patent applications sought in this space since the launch of the pilot program.

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Scientists have been looking for a better battery technology for years, be it a better material or a more efficient energy delivery.  It seems a team at MIT might have found an answer.

A recent CNN article reports that a team of scientists at MIT discovered a microscopic energy source based on carbon nanotubes.  The team, led by MIT professor Dr. Strano, reported that energy can be generated from these nanotubes, whose size allows a much smaller battery to be made but with the same energy output.  A battery made of these tiny tubes have another advantage over the conventional battery - they are non-toxic!

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The 9th Annual Washington D.C. Roundtable, the official public policy forum of the NanoBusiness Alliance, will take place on March 15 - 17, 2010, with informative legislative meetings as well as networking among nanotechnology industry leaders.

In particular, the March 17th Federal Roundtable session is expected to draw business leaders, investors, venture capitalists, scientists, engineers, government officials and visionaries who are driving the success of nanotechnology. The full day agenda will stimulate dialogue between NanoBusiness Alliance Members and Federal Agencies, explore the latest on regulatory policy/impending regulatory actions and federal research initiatives, and familiarize guests with federal product approval authorities, processes, and innovation strategies, with an emphasis on pending developments.

For those navigating through public policy to advance their nanotechnology, this forum has proved to be a helpful and insightful tool. Also, stay tuned for developments on the annual NanoBusiness Alliance Conference slated for September 27 – 29, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois.

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While the snowfall may have closed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) for a fourth day in a row, a fresh crop of patents have issued again as happens each Tuesday. Many of these patents are vital to the future of nanotechnology and cleantech. Below are my top 10 patent observations based on a brief review of the most current PTO data available online.

Starting with the last, but not the least: 

10. The PTO has now classified 5,909 patents as being under Class 977 as nanotechnology patents. This number continues to grow solidly. As highlighted in our posting Update on USPTO Nanotechnology Class 977 in August 2009, the number of 977 patents then was only 5,594. So over 300 nano patents have been granted in six months, which is higher than average (typically, the annual number of granted nano patents is only 250 - 500 patents per year).

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If A123Systems receipt of a $249 million Department of Energy grant and later success as the largest IPO of 2009 was any indicator, battery start-ups in 2010 are likely to lead the wave of cleantech success. For example, hybrid cars are taking on an increasing portion of the automotive market and in turn, the development of efficient lithium-ion batteries is a continuing hot topic in the research world. 

As earth2tech recently highlighted in, 20 Battery Startups Hitting the Road With Lithium-ion, many battery start-up companies are currently focused on lithium-ion and some will likely succeed.

Nanotechnology, albeit small in size, is driving big impacts on advanced materials and cleantech.

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Global warming has had a strong role in triggering the frenzy of cleantech development. 

Although some still question whether the warming of climate can be attributed to human activities, scientists have predicted that 2010 will be the hottest year on record, as reported by The Economist in No hiding place?

Regardless of whether you agree that we have contributed to the temperature rise, it is still worthwhile to pay attention to the consequences of such rise as its impact on cleantech funding and development is destined to increase.

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President Obama's participation in Copenhagen in 2009 gave hope to the environmentalists. However, as explored by The Economist, many wonder what the Summit means to those in other sectors.

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For those of us remembering the nightmare we had back in the labs at school, we can probably still remember vividly that liquid nitrogen could be used as coolant in the electron microscope. However, what if there were an economy that could run on liquid nitrogen?  ScienceDaily recently noted a few proposed considerations for this hypothetical economy: combustion, boiling point, power station, and alternative fuel vehicles.

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With a growing number of ways to harvest electrical energy from cleaner sources, which can highly depend on the geographical locations, we now face the problem of how to distribute these different types of energies while minimizing waste. In other words, when our southwest neighbors have excess electricity generated from wind or solar power, it would be a waste not to transmit the excess to another region that could use that power. Hence the term "smart grid."

The development of smart grids has faced several challenges, but many research teams have attempted to overcome these challenges. A recent article in The Technology Review provides a report on some recent development at this front. 

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- By Matthew Swietlik & John Lazarus

Among 589 patents issued in 2008 across nine categories studied in Foley's Cleantech Patent Landscape Report, hybrid vehicles accounted for 113, or over 19 percent. Corporate entities accounted for over 96 percent of hybrid vehicle patents issued in 2008, while individual inventors accounted for only about 3.5 percent of hybrid vehicle patents. 

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 - By John Lazarus

Collectively, individual inventors accounted for the vast majority of all hydropower (i.e., hydro, wave and tidal power) patents granted in the U.S. during 2008 (28 of 38 total U.S. patents granted - almost 74 percent). All other corporations or entities each accounted for less than three percent. These patents may represent an area of interest for corporations looking to enhance, or enter, the hydropower field by acquiring or licensing the rights to new hydropower technologies.

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 - By John Lazarus

Among the 589 U.S. patents issued in 2008 across nine categories in Foley's Cleantech Patent Landscape Report, the category that produced the most patents was solar energy with 156 patents.

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 - By John Lazarus

Research provided via Foley's Cleantech Patent Landscape Report reflects that the percentage of patents for wind energy inventions that were granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) in 2008 without any initial rejection in view of “prior art” patents was higher for wind energy inventions than any other field in the cleantech patent landscape. More than 25 percent (37 of 144 total) of all wind energy patents were granted by the PTO in 2008 as “first action allowances,” i.e., with no initial rejection by the PTO examiners based upon their search of preceding patents and other prior art documents. 

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- By Adrian Cyhan

On the subject of the U.S. Government funds, the recent Federal stimulus packages present an opportunity for private entities to leverage technology development. As is usually the case, however, there's no free lunch. Federal laws and regulations provide for the Government to get certain rights in technology developed with the use of Federal funds.

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- By: Sean Tu

Venture capital investment and government grants fuel the greentech explosion in the United States. However, due to the recent economic downturn, money from venture capital has been dwindling to a trickle. In fact, many predict that as much as half of U.S. venture capital firms will disappear as a result of the current economic downturn (House Select Committee on Energy Independent and Global Warming - testimony of Robert T. Nelsen July 29, 2009). 

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Foley's 2009 Water Technology U.S. Patent Landscape Report Executive Summary highlights key water technology trends upon a review of 384 patents issued in 2008 in the U.S. among seven different water technology categories: purification, desalinization, metering, irrigation, treatment, conservation, and hydro power. This analysis identifies the innovation that has taken place in water technology and, perhaps just as important, identifies areas where the patent/technology map shows opportunities for future innovation. 

Foley's Executive Summary can by found here. For more information or a copy of the full Water Technology U.S. Patent Landscape Report, please contact John Lazarus at jlazarus@foley.com or Barry Grossman at bgrossman@foley.com.

The next annual Water Technology U.S. Patent Landscape Report is scheduled for release in September of 2010.

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Solar power has a unique potential to generate vast amounts of clean energy that doesn't contribute to global warming. But without a cheap means to store this energy, solar power can't replace fossil fuels on a large scale.

With catalysts created by Dr. Daniel Nocera, an MIT chemist, sunlight can turn water into hydrogen. If the process can scale up, it could make solar power a dominant source of energy.  With Dr. Novera's invention, sunlight would split water to produce versatile, easy-to-store hydrogen fuel that could later be burned in an internal-combustion generator or recombined with oxygen in a fuel cell. Even more ambitious, the reaction could be used to split seawater; in that case, running the hydrogen through a fuel cell would yield fresh water as well as electricity.

Who says solar power can only be used for batteries? The article can be found here.

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Free advertising never hurts, and free advertising in the form of a ranking system may even fuel a little bit of competition.  To this end, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently released its annual assessment of leading utility green power programs in the form of several Top 10 lists, ranking various utilities across the country. 

Under these voluntary programs, consumers can choose to help support additional electricity production from renewable resources such as wind and solar. Some of the highlights from the report include:

• In 2008, total utility green power sales exceeded five billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), about a 20 percent increase over 2007. 
• More than 850 utilities across the United States now offer green power programs
• Green power sales represent five percent of total electricity sales for some of the most popular programs
• More than 600,000 customers are participating in utility programs nationwide

The Top 10 lists include rankings for Green power sales as percentage of total retail electricity sales (Edmond Electric of Oklahoma Power Authority ranks first),  Green pricing program renewable energy sales (Austin Energy comes in at first with 723,824,901 kWh/year).

Read the rest of the rankings here.  Also of interest, "Utility Green Pricing Programs: What Defines Success?" an online report available here.

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Is biofuel per se green and a perfect solution to the global warming problem?  Not quite.  According to a recent report in The Economist, the production of biofuel, including the growing of the plants of which some parts can be used to extract fuel, can actually creates more adverse effects than benefits. 

The article can be found here.

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At the end of March, MIT President Susan Hockfield met with President Obama at the White House to discuss funding for clean-energy technologies.

This news came just a few weeks after MIT researchers reported that they had developed technology that could enable lithium-ion batteries to charge in seconds instead of hours. They're hoping the advance could lead to smaller, faster-charging batteries that could be used in cell phones and other devices (see a previous posting here.).  Another MIT research team, led by Dr. Angela Belcher also reported that they' have combined nanotechnology with genetically engineered viruses to build batteries that could power hybrid cars and cell phones.

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A recent issue of The Economist and one of TIME respectively reported the debut of Taita's Nano in India.  With a price tag of about $2,500, Taita's Nano is by far the cheapest car in the world.  At only slightly over 10 feet, a car of the size of Nano is particularly attractive in a highly populous country like India.  What makes it "green," you ask?  Well, Nano has a fuel efficiency of over 65 mph, which is even higher than most of the hybrid cars on the street.

Another alternative to drive smartly, perhaps?

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Continuing what seems to be the theme of this week's post, we would like to share with the readers another development in the novel battery front.  The recent issue of the Technology Review reports that Dr. D. Sadoway of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has reported a battery with both the electrodes and electrolyte in the form of molten metal.  This battery might be the solution to a problem the current solar cells are encountering -- there is no good way to store the energy in the solar cell harnessed from the sun, resulting the solar cell being almost useless at night.

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The idea of plug-in electric cars or plug-in hybrids seems to have become the new darling of the clean-automotive industries.  With the new Tesla being premiered at a price tag of $109,000; however, no one seems to believe plug-ins would be a common household item soon.  One major problem is that the current plug-ins require the car to be charged for a long time (often overnight) to replenish the juice of its more than 6,500 hundred lithium batteries (and these batteries are not cheap!).

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By J. Steven Rutt[1] & Bruce Wu[2]
Foley & Lardner, L.L.P., Nanotechnology Industry Team

 “Nanotechnology and clean tech are in many ways a natural fit. Many of the large corporations that are active in clean tech are also active in nanotech. Nanotech could end up enabling many next-generation clean technologies such as advanced batteries, water-desalination and water-filtration membranes, building insulation, and of course, solar power.” The Clean Tech Revolution, pg. 46.

“Before his death from cancer in 2005 at age 62, [Richard E.] Smalley and his team came up with a list of the 10 greatest challenges facing humanity. At the top of the list were energy and water, ….The scientists understood that energy and water stood at the base of many of the other challenges. … The [I]nstitute [for Nanoscale Science and Technology], under Smalley’s guidance, decided to focus a good deal of its efforts on the intersection of energy and nanotechnology…” The Clean Tech Revolution, pg. 167. 
 

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By now it's probably common knowledge that carbon dioxide is one culprit of global warming.  Scientists and engineers have mainly approached reducing the impact of the man-made carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from two fronts: 1) replacing CO₂ emitting technology with those that emit no such gas - solar, wind power generation comes to mind; and 2) reducing the emission of CO₂ into the atmosphere by "capturing" it via either sequestering the gas as it's being released or "grabbing" it from the atmosphere.

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