Earthsky Interviews
Private: Bhavik Bakshi: ‘Nanotech leaves a large energy footprint’
11-27-2008 - Energy
That’s Bhavik Bakshi, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio State University, talking about nanotech materials, which are produced at the scale of one billionth of a meter.
Bhavik Bakshi: Anytime you go to such a tiny scale, at the scale of a nanometer, having that level of control requires a lot of resources to be put into that kind of a system.
Bakshi tracked the energy used to produce carbon nanofibers, which can be many times lighter and stronger than steel.
Bhavik Bakshi: So if you compare steel with carbon nanofibers, the most efficient way of making carbon nanofibers that we studied consumes at least 100 times more energy as compared to an equivalent quantity of steel.
Bakshi said that carbon nanofibers aren’t being mass produced yet, but there are products in development that use them in car body panels and doors in order to make cars lighter.
Bhavik Bakshi: You may end up with your gas mileage in the car increasing. But you would end up consuming more energy upstream in making the materials that are used to make your car.
He added that these kind of studies are essential because they don’t just show the benefits of nanotechnology. They also show the costs.
Our thanks to:
Bhavik Bakshi
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio