Startup Houston » NanoTech

Nano-Storage, the Store-Gen Grid and Hurricane Ike

hschmidt — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:18:28 +0000

Hurricane Ike has given us a massive object lesson on the importance of implementing the late Rick Smalleyâ€™s vision of the Store-Gen Grid (SGG; graphic courtesy Wade Adams at Riceâ€™s Smalley Institute) â€“ a highly distributed network of granular electric production and storage.Â One of the elements of the SGG concept is a household storage unit for about 100 kW-hrs of dispatch energy.Â

Well, we ainâ€™t there yet.Â Of all the standard infrastructure services, only two seem to be reliable in a pinch: cell phones and natural gas.Â The electric grid is plainly extremely fragile.Â This is a major opportunity for nanotechnology.Â With a major power outage in the energy capital of the world, this topic ought to get *lot* more traction, and fast.Â So get your thinking caps on.Â According to the Houston Chronicle, nearly 3 million people lost power due to the storm.Â So I reckon there are aboutÂ 3 million ready customers for the next big thing in distributed power.Â Iâ€™m one of them!

Now, when considering storage technologies, energy density *really* matters!Â Among practical materials, nothing is even comes close to gasoline or diesel fuel.Â Just before the storm, my wife was wise enough to ignore my objections and bought a neat little Honda 2kW generator. Â I got ten gallons of gas on Friday, and used about five gallons over a 36 hour period.Â This was just enough to keep the refrigerator going, charge cell phones, and run a lamp, two fans and a small TV set.Â This enabled us to essentially camp-out in our house.Â Forget about air conditioning, running the washer/dryer or taking a hot shower (the darned water heater has an electric starter).

Here are some representative (volumetric) storage energy densities (from Wikipedia):

Technology or Material	Energy Density ( MJ / liter )
Capacitor Ultracapacitor	~ 0.050
Lead acid batteryÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â	~ 0.15
Flywheel	~ 0.50
Lithium ion batteryÂ Â Â Â Â	~ 1.50
Hydrogen Fuel CellÂ	~ 1.62
Li Ion w/ nanowiresÂ Â Â	~ 2.60
EthanolÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â	~ 24.0
GasolineÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â	~ 34.6

Letâ€™s look at the Lead-Acid Battery (LAB) as an example, since itâ€™s still the workhorse for storing electric energy.Â My five gallons of gas would equate to 4,383 liters of lead-acid batteries (LABs) (3.8*5*34.6/0.15).Â My total investment for generation and storage was $1020 ($1000 generator, $20 gas).Â How much does 4.3 cubic meters of LABs cost again? – about $20-$50/liter?Â And how much does it weigh?Â I can (and did) carry (lug) the generator and the five gallons of gas myself at the same time.Â

Overall, electrical storage energy density is worse than chemical storage a good factor of ten or more.Â An order of magnitude (or two) is nothing to sneeze at!Â It is plain that without sufficient oil/gasoline/diesel, we are in a world of hurt for the foreseeable future.

Each of the technologies listed above employs, or can be improved with, nanotechnology or nanostructured materials.Â Letâ€™s do a little math and get a handle on the nano-scale challenge involved here.Â If gasoline has an energy density of, say, 35 MJ/l, it equivalently contains about 3.5 x 10^-17 Joules per cubic nanometer.Â Modeling this as a parallel plate capacitor in vacuum with a 1 nm gap, you get the target energy density with a voltage difference of about 2.8 Volts.Â If you use a decent dielectric like TiO₂ (k = 40Îµ₀) instead of vacuum, you only need 0.44 V.Â About 1 V/nm is a pretty stiff electric field, but not larger than those considered routine for ultra-thin gates in the semiconductor industry.Â This all seems pretty doable; making the nanowire connections to the outside world will be the tricky part; itâ€™s probably a job for carbon nanotubes or maybe graphene.Â Rick would have liked that.Â

I hope somebody out there gets to work on this pronto!Â Even at $100 / liter, it would be a useful technology.Â When you get the cost down to about $10 / liter, youâ€™ll be a bona fide hero, and a very wealthy one at that.

Texas-Sized Nanotechnology

hschmidt — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:24:16 +0000

Dr. Howard Schmidt is a native Texan, a long-time Houston resident and a serial entrepreneur.Â He grew up San Antonio and moved to Houston to attend Rice University, where he got a BS in electrical engineering in 1980, and then a Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1986. Â Since then he has been involved in four technology start-ups, including SI Diamond Technology, an early nanomaterials company that he took public in 1993.Â In 2003, Dr. Schmidt joined Rick Smalley‘s research team as the Executive Director of the Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory. Â Schmidt is now a Research Fellow in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at Rice, mainly focused on developing energy-related applications of single-wall carbon nanotubes.Â He also serves as Senior Nanotechnology Advisor to the Advanced Energy Consortium, and is on the board of Axion Power International. Dr. Schmidt has agreed to become a regular contributor to Startup Houston; this is his first post.

The Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC) just officially announced its first Request For Proposals (RFP). This is big news for us little (nano) people, and it seems a good topic with which to kick off a new column on nanotechnology, commercialization and start-up companies.

And it fits in nicely with my personal perspective on technology and start-ups. For me, technology is pure fun – it’s using science, engineering, imagination, persistence and a little luck to solve a problem, make something work, make some novel material, etc. But starting a company is serious stuff. There can be fun involved, of course. Watching a new company progress and grow is big fun. But you don’t start a company for fun; you start a company to make money. And money comes from customers. Customers fork over money because you and your technology solve some problem they have. Many technologists start companies because they love their technology, not because they have a customer asking them to turn pro and sell them a zillion copies of their new widget.

And that is what makes the AEC and their RFP soooo cool. It’s a collection of well funded customers that are telling us what they want to buy. The AEC sponsors include six integrated exploration and production companies (BP America Inc., ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil Corp., Occidental Oil and Gas, Shell and Total) and three major well services companies (Baker Hughes Incorporated, Halliburton Energy Services Inc., and Schlumberger). At this point they’re looking for basic micro- and nanotechnology research and development services. Eventually, the hope is that this research will generate fieldable technologies for locating and extracting oil from known reservoirs. They’re essentially shopping for technologists that they hope to pay to develop new tools that they will eventually buy to produce oil.

In general, my expectation is that this R&D activity will spawn new materials and sensing methods; some may get used directly by the majors, but most will get bundled into a package and distributed by the service companies. A likely play for entrepreneurs is to manufacture the materials and components and then provide them to the integrating service companies. Talk about soup-to-nuts market pull!

The RFP is open to all bidders (universities, small businesses, large companies, national labs, you-name-it) world-wide, although I would have to predict that academic researchers will gain the lion’s share of the contracts. They have an advantage in cheap labor (graduate students) and extensive facilities for characterizing new materials. But something nanotechnologists usually do not have is a) a working knowledge of hydrocarbon production and b) experience at commercializing some new widget.

This makes for an important opportunity for Houston entrepreneurs. Since Houston is the energy capital of the world (right?), there are plenty of working and retired experts here in oil and gas production. Those academic researchers will be well served by teaming up with O&G experts to round out their teams via consulting or subcontracting arrangements. Similarly, if you have a killer idea, you could find academic researchers to help perform the research or characterize the materials. You can find potential partners by trolling the â€˜research interests’ websites of individual profs at the local research universities, Rice and UH. UT and TAMU are not too far away to collaborate with, either. Most professors are quite approachable if you a) know what you’re talking about and b) can provide some complementary resource. They’re amazingly pressed for time, and complete experts at evaluating ideas quickly (from peer reviewing each other’s papers and proposals), so don’t take it personally if you get a â€˜no’ pretty quickly. Also, keep a look out for PR coverage of breakthroughs from AEC funded research over the next year or two. They’ll also turn up at events like the Rice Alliance meetings. Those research products will need experienced entrepreneurs to make the commercial transition.

Overall, I think this bodes well for generating a number of great start-up opportunities in Houston. Happy hunting!

Rice Alliance hosts largest Business Plan Competition in the World

kurt — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 06:02:37 +0000

The Rice Alliance has gone and outdone themselves again by nearly doubling the amount of funds that will be awarded at this year’s Business Plan Competition.Â They will be awarding over $600,000 dollars in funds for approximately 36 different graduate teams from around the world, which enables them to lay claimÂ to hosting “the largest and richest intercollegiate MBA/graduate-level business plan competition in the world, with more prize money, more teams competing, and more judges than any other competition.”Â (Somebody please tell me they are videotaping this thing, because I think this would make a great reality show).Â Also, according to their web site, every team will receive some type of cash award so noone goes home empty handed.Â

Are you a graduate team with a killer business plan?Â You can still register your team by submitting your executive summary before February 21stÂ here and you can find all of the complete details about the event here.

Update: Registration Open for 2008 Nanotechnology Venture Forum

Josh Tabin — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:43:56 +0000

Updating a previous post…

7th Annual Rice Alliance Nanotechnology Venture Forum
Event Date: Thursday, January 24, 2008
Rice University, McNair Hall, Jones Graduate School of Management
9:00 am to 5:00 pm – Program
5:00 pm – Networking Reception & Company Showcase

To register and more Information: click here
Early Registration Deadline: Monday, January 21st at 5:00 pm

WHY ATTEND?

Hear renowned nanotechnology experts discuss, in plain-English, today’s real applications of nanotechnology
Learn about the latest nano developments in cancer treatment, energy, electronics, & other applications
Better understand investment opportunities in nanotechnology
Learn how nanotechnology will change our lives and shape the future of business
Gain insights from some of the nation’s most prominent venture capitalists in nanotechnology
Learn about nanotechnology commercial applications from 15-20 companies

Here are the keynote speakers and members of the venture capital panel:

Opening Keynote:
Ray Johnson, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
Lockheed Martin Corp.

Lockheed Martin is a leader in the application of nanotechnology to make products smaller, lighter, and smarter. Dr. Johnson guides the Company’s technology vision and provides corporate leadership in the strategic areas of Technology and Engineering, which include more than 65,000 people working on more than 4,000 programs. Dr. Johnson also leads the Corporation’s Advanced Concepts Organization and the Center for Innovation, a world-class laboratory for collaborative experimentation and analysis involving Lockheed Martin, its customers, and industry partners.

Afternoon Keynote:
Josh Wolfe, Managing Partner and Co-Founder
Lux Capital

Josh is a co-founder of The NanoBusiness Alliance, a columnist with Forbes Magazine and Editor of the monthly Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report. Josh focuses on investments in nanotechnology, semiconductors and life sciences, and manages the firm’s investments in Nanosys and Cambrios. Josh Wolfe has been called “America’s Leading Authority on Nanotechnology” and was awarded as a “Top 40 under 40″ most influential business leaders.

Closing Keynote:
Chris Anzalone, Ph.D., President and CEO
Arrowhead Research Corp.

Chris Anzalone became President and CEO of Arrowhead Research on December 1. Arrowhead Research is a publicly-traded company whose mission is to commercialize products based on nanotechnology in high-growth markets. Dr. Anzalone is the founder of the Benet Group, a private equity firm focused on launching NanoBiotechnology companies from university research. His portfolio includes Leonardo BioSystems, based on a drug delivering technology for treating cancer developed by Dr. Mauro Ferrari.

Venture Capital/Investor Panel:
- John Hanten, Chevron Technology Ventures
- Mike Samouce, Texas NanoTech Ventures
- Katie Szczepaniak, Wasatch Venture Fund
- Barry Zhang, Kenda Capital

Cost: $65: non-members and members of the general public (early registration by Jan. 21st deadline)
No charge: 2007-2008 Rice Alliance Members and full-time Rice faculty/staff/students
$75: Walk-up Registration

Event Underwriter: Winstead

Company Presentation & Afternoon Break Sponsor: Comerica Bank

Lunch & Networking Reception/Company Showcase Sponsor: Fish & Richardson

Co-Host: The Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University

More information or information on sponsorships: www.alliance.rice.edu or alliance@rice.edu or 713-348-3443.

Rice Alliance Nanotechnology Venture Forum – Dates Announced

Josh Tabin — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:30:33 +0000

The Rice Alliance has announced a date for the 2008 Nanotechnology Forum. It will be January 24, 2008 at the Jones School (McNair Hall) at Rice University (map here). Please mark your calendars for a mind blowing time.

I went last year and was thoroughly impressed with the nanotech growth we have seen here in Houston. I can only imagine what developments there have been in the past year.

I also got a free copy of Nanotechnology for Dummies; trust me when I say it helped!!!

Interview with Walter Ulrich, President and CEO of the Houston Technology Center

Josh Tabin — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 01:36:42 +0000

When I first met Walter Ulrich at a Houston Technology Center event, what I gathered most about him was that this guy was the real deal: a true “pocket protector” geek in the most admiring sense of the word. Ulrich has been a pioneer in the information technology sector for almost 40 years. In the 1970′s, Ulrich led the development of the first commercially successful email service. That’s impressive.
During the 1980′s and 1990′s, Ulrich consulted with Fortune 100 company’s on technology and business issues until he became the CEO of Houston-based Mincron Software Systems. After leaving that role, Ulrich was one of two Houston technology professionals to be appointed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry to serve on the advisory committee for the $200 million Emerging Technology Fund.

I had a chance to catch up with Walter this last week; here are some excerpts from our chat:

Josh: I know that you have been in and around technology for many years. How did you come to get involved with the HTC?

Walter: The HTC looked like a place where I could give back as a volunteer, and it turned out to also be the place where much important business goes on.Â As someone active in the technology world, active and deep participation in the HTC was not only personally satisfying but it is good for business.

Josh: There are all different perspectives on the HTC’s core mission. How would you characterize your vision?

Walter: We aspire to make Houston a globally recognized center of technology innovation and commercialization, particularly focused on IT and Web 2.0, energy and clean energy technologies, bio/life sciences, nanotechnology and NASA-related aerospace. We have the underlying economic strength and have been building the business infrastructure over the last ten years.Â Now it is time to execute successful commercialization by driving successes one emerging company at a time.

Josh: There are many groups around town that all seem to overlap in different respects when it comes to supporting technology development and new business creation (Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, University of Houston Small Business Development Center, HTC, Greater Houston Partnership, Mayor’s Office). From an outsiders perspective, there does not seem to be much collaborative effort among these groups. Is this the case and if so, what can be done to have a more concerted effort to work together?Walter: The many groups represent the strong community infrastructure needed to provide support to emerging technology ventures.Â Throughout 2007, the HTC has taken the initiative to collaborate with and support the Rice Alliance, the UH SBDC, BioHouston and many other organizations.Â The HTC works closely with the GHP in several areas including serving on the Energy Collaborative, the Technology Infrastructure Committee, and the Marketing Committee.Â In addition, the GHP is a partner with the HTC on the Gulf Coast Regional Center of Innovation and Commercialization.Â With regard to the Mayorâ€™s office, the HTC works closely with Helen Chang.Â The Mayor was the opening speaker for our Energy Technology Venture Capital Conference earlier this year and I have attended events at the Mayorâ€™s request.

Josh: I have been to the HTC site and read that the HTC views itself as both an accelerator and an incubator. I see the accelerator element clearly, but help me understand the level of incubation the the HTC does.

Walter: The HTC is first an accelerator of emerging technology companies that represent a significant technical and business upside for the region.Â However, we have several programs that provide support to pre-seed companies including the Educational Seminar Series, the Innovation Pipeline program (with colleges and universities), and the support we provide applicants to the Texas Emerging Technology Fund.

Josh: The are several clear areas of focus for the HTC that I can see: energy, life sciences, information technology, nanatechnology and NASA/aerospace technology. That’s a lot of ground to cover. Does the fact that Houston is a center for energy, life sciences (Medical Center), nanotech (Rice and Smalley Institute as well as CNI) and NASA (Johnson Space Center) leave IT and Web 2.0 behind?

Walter: It is no coincidence that the HTC focuses on areas where the region has strength.Â IT seems overshadowed by the breadth of the energy industry and the Texas Medical Center, but it is significant in the region.Â Some $4 billion in revenue is generated by the IT sector and that gives us a very strong base.Â Furthermore, each of the other sectors that you mention rely heavily on advances in IT to succeed.Â So IT is a key focus for the City and the HTC.

Josh: Something that continues to come up in conversations with entrepreneurs is the seeming lack of capital availability in Houston. You and I both know that is not true in the aggregate but there are segments that do not get as much attention as others. Why can’t Houston attract venture capital like Boston or San Francisco? We are a much larger and more diverse population or does that even matter?

Walter: The key to attracting capital is to continue to build successful emerging technology companies that provide superior returns to their investors.Â The HTC has been doing that for eight years and our strategic plan calls for us to increase and enhance that capability.Â Special events like our Energy Technology Venture Capital Conference March 6 and 7 are bringing investors from around the world to Houston.

Josh: Like I mentioned earlier, you are no stranger to technology. Do you see any parralels or diffences between today’s entrepreneur and those of years before?

Walter: In the old days, and entrepreneur with a great idea or invention could be a mediocre business person and still succeed.Â Today, an emerging business must be like ivory snow â€“ 99.44% right â€“ or they will not succeed.Â It also takes more money now so the gap between friends and family AND large investors has grown creating a deep valley of death.Â That is why the Houston Technology Center and the broad-based community support for new technology companies is so important.

Josh: Recently, I read a research report that showed an increasing number of startups run by immigrants. Are you seeing this through the HTC as well? Are there opportunities for the HTC to work with similar organizations and universities in China, India or elsewhere to bring technology starups here to the US (i.e., commercialization opportunities)?

Walter: One of the strengths of the US is the great diversity of its people and that translates in business to a multitude of complementary strengths.Â Immigrants bring fresh ideas from their homelands and from their cultures and make up an important part of the Houston economy.

The HTC has already established relationships with a few of the local Consulates where our work is directly related to theirs.Â Our Energy sector, for example, has well-established partnerships with several energy centers around the world.

In addition, the HTC admires the great work of organizations like the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) and provide what support that we can.Â In the last six months, we initiated the HTC Americas program as a prelude to HTC Global.Â We are starting with a focus on our nearest neighbor, Mexico, but will expand throughout Latin America and then around the world.

Josh: I’ve asked a ton of questions so far. Is there anything you’d like to add?

Walter: The Houston Technology Center salutes you, Startup Houston and all the organizations that join with us to encourage innovation and the commercialization of emerging technology companies. We are implementing a new strategic plan, so we call upon all to participate in our events. Personal participation and financial support is always greatly appreciated.

Thank you Walter very much for your time and dedication to the Houston startup community.

Why Houston is So Great for Startups

Josh Tabin — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 03:49:44 +0000

I had breakfast this morning with Stuart Page, CEO of Houston-based startup, GloriOil. I first noticed GloriOil after they announced an infusion of capital from their investors (see blog post from last week). Turns out that Stuart and I have some mutual friends so we met up today to chat.

GloriOil is very interesting to me in that they represent a fusion of multiple industry segments that are well represented in Houston: energy and biotechnology. For those of you who have not checked out their site, this company is commercializing a Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR) process and technology developed by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) through a partnership with ONGC.

By using biosurfactant substances developed in GloriOil’s Houston laboratory, the company uses a “huff and puff” technique in which they develop a “down-hole bioreactor,” sort of like a microbrewery put under intense pressure underground, that the company claims to potentially create a 200% increase in oil production of mature fields. Check out the links on their site for SPE papers on the topic.

Very few cities around the world can facilitate such cross pollination of two divergent technologies; yet it happens all the time in Houston. Another company that demonstrates the potential Houston has for such multiple discipline development is Oxane Materials, maker of OxProp which is a more effective proppant that uses nanotechnology in frac jobs.

I see tremendous opportunities for companies like these here in Houston and hope we can continue to foster their development.

Don’t Miss the upcoming Nanotechnology Venture Forum

kurt — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 23:06:31 +0000

The 6th Annual Rice Alliance Nanotechnolgy Venture Forum is just around the corner and will show off one of Houston’s key areas of strength. Last year, they had over 500 attendees and I hear that this year looks to be even bigger than last.

According to the site…

” You should attend the forum if you are seeking:
- investment opportunities in emerging nanotechnology companies
- customers or strategic partners in the nanotechnology industry
- management opportunities
- assistance to start an entrepreneurial enterprise
- news about leading edge nanotechnology technologies”

I know I’ll be there if for no other reason than to hear all of the great things that we will be seeing soon from Houston companies.

Go here to register for the event.