Nanotechnology
American Oil and Gas Reporter
December 2001

By William Dylan Powell
Special Correspondent

HOUSTON-How many? How much? How deep? How risky? The energy industry is one of scale–where investors measure margins, production, and power in terms of their largess. But as the world again enters a new year, it's time to think small for big opportunities–small in scale. Making things smaller and making smaller things will have a direct impact on upstream operations in the years to come.

The hydrocarbon industry is a big deal. Its coming of age reshaped the world's economic, social and technological landscape forever. It draws upon the resources of a multitude of scientific, economic and political disciplines. Producers are about to add more weapons to their cache of oil patch armaments: nanotechnology, the science of creating functional structures at the molecular level.

Nanotechnology's disciples build tools, machines and materials using the smallest of building blocks. The "nano" refers to a nanometer, one-billionth of a meter. To put that into perspective, one magazine observes that a nanometer is to a human hair as a human hair is to the thickest redwood tree.

In this relatively nascent science, the warm and fluid fields of biology and chemistry collide with the hard and unyielding disciplines of math, physics and manufacturing. Their coalescence results in some interesting ideas: Dust-sized computers. Manufacturing facilities that produce almost no waste and fit on your dinner table. Materials of surreal strength and levity.

Not all of these tantalizing fantasies will bear fruit in the end. But nanotechnology will produce pragmatic, useful solutions and effecting changes in many facets of the energy industry, supporters predict. And, they say, those changes have already begun.

Moore's Law Repealed?
Inside the broader field of nanotechnology lies a number of branch disciplines. Some older sciences have now been appropriated under the nanoumbrella, and even industry analysts debate about which studies can truly be called nanotechnology.

One specialized field is molecular electronics, whereby the tools and principles of the nanosciences are applied to make smaller, faster, and cheaper computers. Manufactured at a fraction of the cost of silicon-based processors, manufacturers of molecular electronics could make components a hundred thousand times as dense as their nonmolecularly scaled counterparts-at a fraction of the cost. And their end products consume far less energy.

Silicon-based transistors could soon be demoted to less ambitious duties as molecular devices replace them, eventually having profound affects on the tools used in the energy industry. Moore's Law states that transistor performance and density will double every eighteen months. Though recent breakthroughs involving the application of light waves (a major variable in the silicon chip manufacturing process) have gained ground, the silicon industry predicts that it will reach the physical limits of the medium in five to 10 years.

Paul Packan of Intel notes that "fundamental thermodynamic limits are being reached in critical areas, and unless new, innovative solutions are found, the current rate of improvement can not be maintained." Silicon chips are getting more expensive as well, even for the largest of corporate entities. The use of the nanosciences could completely overcome these limitations.

Formed in 1999 by a small group of scientists, Molecular Electronics Corporation is harnessing this new technological platform through the creation of a number of products. Most notable among Molecular Electronic's projects is the self-assembled reversible molecular switch and memory. The device, built atom by atom from the bottom up, spontaneously self assembles under the proper conditions, much like biological cell structures.

James Tour, co-founder, vice president and chairman of the Houston-based Molecular Electronics, and his colleagues are developing a nanoscale 1K memory, which he reports the company should complete within the next two business quarters. Tour is excited about his work and its impact in the oil patch, commenting "Don't ask what it will change; ask what it won't change. It could have an enormous effect from many perspectives-exploration, cleanup, computational work, movement of oil and gas through a pipeline."

All Things Intelligent
These nanosolutions won't stop at the office. With gains in both computing efficiency and economy comes the ability to bring intelligence to that which was once passive. Charles Lieber, professor of chemistry at Harvard University, notes: "It may not be specific to the oil and gas industry, but one of the more exciting applications of nanotechnology will be the ability to assemble powerful application-specific computing systems-that could even be disposable-using integrated optical communications. This technology could make an incredibly powerful network, improving processing, distribution and safety in the oil and gas industry."

Tour concurs, adding "What molecular electronics will hope to do is to provide lower-cost computational systems in packages where there presently is no computation or memory done. Think of having very low-cost entities-possibly even paints-that have imbedded electronics in them, sensing the movement of oil and gas through the pipeline. On the high end of things," Tour continues, "molecular electronics hopes to enable computations for oil exploration and production that can't currently be done because of the massive computing times needed for certain calculations.

For example, he lists, determining the efficiency of burning routines, including the exact degradation profiles in a combustion process. These get extremely computer intensive to go to it from a bare-bones scientific beginning. The only thing that predicts that is an exact equation of nature is the Schrödinger equation, and that can only be solved for very small systems like hydrogen. Beyond that, the Schrödinger equation can't be solved-you have to approximate. Approximations are only as good as the amount of data you can lend, which is totally dependent on computational time and resources. So if you bring your computation time more toward zero, you can better predict the acute reactions that are involved in combustion, cracking, and reforming."

At the Well
Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root announced in September 2001 an engineering services agreement with Houston-based Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc, an early market provider of nanotechnology solutions. Nanotubes, the world's strongest fibers, have tremendous potential for upstream applications including conductive plastics, electrodes, batteries, field emissions, electromagnetic shielding, specialty composite materials, flat-screen displays, and advanced computing solutions, CNI explains.

The accord provides for the commercialization of CNI's flagship product of buckytubes, single-walled carbon nanotubes. Under it, KBR will provide design, fabrication, construction, and support for a 6,000 square foot office and laboratory in Houston.

CNI is comprised of Rice University faculty members Richard Smalley, Daniel Colbert and Kenneth Smith, operating under the capitalist counsel of Bob Gower, former chairman and chief executive officer of Lyondell Petrochemicals. CNI has sold $250,000 worth of buckytubes, although its focus is in intellectual property and technology development opportunities. The KB&R agreement will expand production capacity of buckytubes, using a gas phase manufacturing process now working under a pilot program.

One example of how the oil patch is using nanotechnology lies in drill bit improvements, Dan Colbert of CNI explains. "Both in modification of the mechanical properties, as well as sensor capabilities of drill bits, nanotubes have a definite application," he comments.

"It's very materials focused, and among the needs for drill bit materials–hardness and coating, nanotubes could potentially play a role in it," he says. As drill bits become increasingly smart with more sensors, Colbert added, buckytubes have even more potential.

Sensing And Separation
Sensing and detecting instruments are a hot area in nanoscience application, exclaims Harvard's Lieber. "Nanotechnology is enabling detectors that can be integrated-many distinct chemical or biological species can be simultaneously detected-into very small electronic packages cheaply," he details. "One might envision such detectors being duplicated in mass and used widely for safety monitoring (detecting leaks at facilities), monitoring of processing or conversion to maintain optimized production efficiencies and the like."

CNI's Colbert adds "There's quite a bit of usage for nanotubes to engineer various kinds of sensors. If gases, for instance, absorb on the nanotubes, their electrical conductivity is modified in a way that depends on which kind of gas is absorbed. So you have a chemical sensor; kind of a nose. That hasn't been developed to the point where it's commercial right now, but I would expect the first kinds of those sensor applications to be coming out within two years. Almost certainly at first they won't be oil patch focused, but this is the kind of thing that could move over to the oil and gas industry on a three- to five-year time scale."

Another application involves separation of gases or liquids based on differences in molecule size. Although not a new application, this is a science that today falls under the nanoumbrella. Industries have found uses for this technology in manufacturing, air purification, gas and chemical processing, environmental control, and refining operations. ExxonMobil is known for its work in using zeolites, crystalline porous nanostructures with long-range crystalline order and other specialty materials for use in oil and gas applications.

There has also been progress in the development of materials to improve the storage of hydrogen gas. Carbon nanotubes can comprise substances with great storage applications, Lieber reveals. "These hydrogen storage capabilities are believed to be due to the unique nanoscale structure and properties of the nanotubes. This is the type of application that would require very large-scale production of nanoscale material, which is the challenge being met primarily by Richard Smalley at Rice University, and his company."

Managing the Micro
Though technically not nanotechnology because it occurs at the microlevel, MEMS (Micro-Electrical Mechanical Systems) are often lumped into the nanosciences. This field is further developed in terms of commercial offerings than most areas of small science, already delivering pragmatic tools and technology adding value to the energy chain.

One provider of such technology is Input/Output, Inc, owner of Applied MEMS. The company has a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Houston that designs, fabricates, packages, and tests high-performance MEMS devices. Also strong in intellectual property, Applied MEMS uses half of its facility's capacity to satisfy Input/Output manufacturing needs, farming out the rest to other technology and oil-patch companies. Applied MEMS' work has included razor-sharp applications in the field of ultra-low noise MEMS accelerometers and advanced, super-efficient digital geophones.

Another oil-patch MEMS application is a downhole robot, which crawls down a well to perform data collection or other simple tasks intelligently, then comes back topside on its own. Intelligent Inspection Corp.'s MicroRig, which is receiving development and marketing support from Halliburton, uses chain-like legs to climb downhole. It has decision-making capabilities, and the ability to solve simple problems.

Though it initially will only measure downhole variable such as temperature and pressure, the robot will eventually be able to perform other more complex tasks, such as operate logging equipment and valves. The project is being steered and tested by a consortium of technically innovative energy leaders such as Houston's Marathon Oil, who has over a century's worth of experience in downhole technology development, as well as industry giants BP and StatOil.

Interesting Prospects
Further out on the nanotech horizon comes the work of K. Eric Drexler, whose concepts of the biologically-inspired molecular machine seem like something from 1950s science fiction movie. Drexler predicts that nanoscale robots will revolutionize our society, conducting bottom-up construction of a universe of entities-including the self-replication of other robots. These concepts have raised both eyebrows and concerns among the scientific and business community.

Drexler asserts that by placing each atom in any manufacturing process exactly where needed, society will eliminate waste from the manufacturing process. Also possible, he predicts, will be the repair of the human body with virus or cancer-destroying robots. One concern is whether constructing intelligent, continually self-replicating nanoelectomechanical (NEM) organisms is a good idea–could we control them? It seems we have plenty of time to ponder such questions. Successful design of these entities is still hindered by issues of energy generation and storage, friction and sticking, mobility and the ability of these robots to perform work effectively. But research continues.

Drexler told Scientific American magazine that molecular machines would: "drive down the cost of solar cells and energy storage systems, cutting demand for coal and petroleum."

In the mean time, nanotechnology is creating exciting and innovative solutions that will support and enhance the oil and gas industry and its supporting concerns. The tools used to conduct business in the field and boardroom are getting smaller, more effective and more profitable to those with oil and gas interests.

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