🚀 go-pugleaf

On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 08:16:02 GMT, steve@[127.0.0.1] (Stephen  X.
Carter) wrote:

>On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 03:15:58 GMT, - <-@-.-> wrote:
>
>
>>
>>Nano Carbon technology in the years ahead maybe the answer for petrol
>>cars as this brings the weight of a car down from 2 or 3 tonnes to
>>only 200kg which saves up to 90% on greenhouse gases.
>
>Reference?

Found the direct link.
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/

Dr. Andrew Harris - 2007 Eureka People�s Choice nominee - August 9

Chemical Engineer Dr Andrew Harris has been nominated for a Eureka
People�s Choice Prize for his work on carbon nanotubes � a lightweight
material ten times stronger than steel which can not only be used to
make bullet proof cloth, but could one day cut carbon emissions from
cars by up to 90 per cent.

Transcript.
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s2000036.htm

Dr Andrew Harris: I did chemistry at school and then I did chemistry
at university and I am actually a terrible chemist. And then I
discovered this thing called chemical engineering, which is chemistry
on a big scale. 

I spend a lot of time on my bike thinking. It�s a lovely ride from the
beach to the university . 

I work with a fantastic bunch of people. No academic ever works alone.

We�re trying to change the way that people live and change the impact
they have on the planet. The work that my group is doing is to try and
find a way to make lots and lots of carbon nanotubes.

Narration: Carbon nanotubes are made from an element found all around
us � as charcoal, graphite in pencils and in its crystalline form,
diamonds. Gram for gram, carbon nanotubes are worth almost as much.

Associate Professor Geoff Barton: Carbon nanotubes have been around
for quite some time. The challenge for people like Andrew is to take
those things through to the level where they can be made commercially
viable and I think that�s what he is doing and that is why his science
is so good.

Dr Andrew Harris: Carbon nanotubes are just the most fantastic thing
I�ve ever come across in science. If you imagine a sheet of chicken
wire and you roll it up in the shape of a test tube and then you
shrink it down so that it�s 10,000 times smaller than the hair on your
head and you make it out of carbon, that�s a carbon nanotube. Very
good quality ones can be as much as two thousand US dollars a gram.

Carbon nanotubes are the strongest material that mankind has ever come
across - ten times stronger than steel.The US army have come up with a
bullet proof cloth that has nanotubes woven into it that will stop a
bullet from not very far away.

There�s a really, really interesting example form NASA. They want to
replace the space shuttle program. They�ll have a satellite in space
tethered to the Earth and the rope will be made of carbon nanotubes
because that is the only material we have that�s strong enough and
flexible enough

Now if you make your new cars out of carbon nanotube reinforced
plastic which you can do, instead of a car weighing two tonnes it will
only weigh a couple of hundred kilograms so you reduce the amount of
emissions by 90 per cent.

So those are the sort of technologies we are trying to bring about.
That�s why I get up out of bed in the morning.

I love thinking about what the future could hold and what you need to
do to get there.

Story Contacts

Associate Professor Geoff Barton 
Head of Department of Chemical Engineering
The University of Sydney

Dr Andrew Harris 
Chemical Engineer
University of Sydney
Laboratory for Sustainable Technology

Related Info

Dr Andrew Harris profile

Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, University of Sydney
http://www.chem.eng.usyd.edu.au/sustech/research.shtml