A week ago I was attending the Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Forum. You can see the first of two discussions of that event here. The second day focused on “clean technologies” and the convergence of nano and biotechnologies.

The Clean Tech panel was begun, soberly, by Professor Dan Nocera of MIT, who exlained using simple math how difficult it is going to be to provide sufficient energy, not to mention replace current energy sources, for some 8-9 billion people in fifty years time. Now, his math seems to be based on extrapolations of current energy use and growth, and assumes little change in human consumption patterns, values or attitudes. Never-the-less, he concludes, as just one example, that if you think that nuclear energy is the clean answer we will have to build a new plant every 1.8 days for the next 45 years! He has similar calculations for other saviors, such as plant-based energy or solar. Thus, he believes we will burn lots and lots of coal in the next 45 years. Ouch.

Yet, other panelists pointed to 30-40 opportunities in clean energy begging for development, from cellulosic fuels to LED’s to nanobatteries and super capacitors, to coal gasification. The panel left us all wondering if we could do these things in time to deal with both the global energy needs and the climate crisis.

Regarding biotech, there is research interest in inhaled chemo for cancer, which is apparently more effective. Many genetic markers for disease are now known, but the nano challenge is developing delivery mechanisms for treatments and cures. A key conclusion of this panel is that most clinical trials and even core R&D will be done outside the U.S. because of the well known road blocks that exist here.

Finally, I want to hightlight one other company that I learned about at the Forbes conference, Seldon Technologies. A New England-based start-up, they are using carbon nanotubes to make water filtration systems. The systems are capable of removing bacteria and viruses, have a very high through-put meaning little power consumption (or none if human powered), and they are inexpensive to make. Listen to this. Five years ago when this research was new, carbon nanotubes cost about $275 an ounce. Today, Seldon is buying nanotubes for 60 cents to as little as 20 cents per ounce. And, the filter is produced by rolling the filter material between two paper sheets, on old, obsolete newspaper-making machines. This is a technology worth watching.