super cool! are yall hiring materials scientists? :)
Launch HN: Saratoga Energy (YC W19), Better Carbon Nanotubes from Carbon Dioxide
21–30 of 52 posts
Re: Launch HN: Saratoga Energy (YC W19), Better Carbon Nanotubes from Carbon Dioxide
#22Good luck! How big do you see this carbon nanotube market being, and thus how much net CO2 do you see yourself removing from the environment?
thanks! in the case of the cement market, carbon nanotubes have been used in 1% concentration to improve the lifespan of cement. 4 billion tons of cement are produced every year. If carbon nanotubes where used in all new cement mixtures, that would be 40 million tons of carbon nanotubes per year, which would consume 148 million tons of CO2 per year. But perhaps more importantly, carbon nanotubes would reduce the repl…
I love this area of technology and the scale of your vision. For the battery application, do you need to use only electrically conducting nanotubes? Is your 27kWh per kg number for single-walled electrically conducting nanotubes? Do you need to filter out semi-conducting nano-tubes?
I think that the improvements to batteries will have a better value proposition than strengthening concrete, though perhaps you can get away with less filtering requirements for non-electrical applications. How much does this strengthening increase the life-time-value of the concrete? Concrete is under $100 per ton (poured cost, 50% of which is dry materials), and it seems like you're talking about 50% - 150% increased cost.
At scale, you are talking about ((40 billion kg) * 27 * (kWh per kg)) / (1 year) = 123.205917 gigawatts -- to makes 1267 kg of nanotubes per second for 40 million tons of carbon nanotubes per year. 123 GW almost certainly means hundreds of billions of dollars invested in power infrastructure for the purposes of carbon nanotube production for concrete. If you expect to scale with sustainability in mind, you should consider designing your entire reaction around the renewable energy source. Perhaps you can employ similar catalytic processes to the Co-Mo-S photo-hydrogenation from sunlight to achieve higher efficiency per area by using sunlight more directly.
Re: Launch HN: Saratoga Energy (YC W19), Better Carbon Nanotubes from Carbon Dioxide
#23Are you hiring mechanical engineers?
Re: Launch HN: Saratoga Energy (YC W19), Better Carbon Nanotubes from Carbon Dioxide
#24Can randoms purchase a Kg of CNTs from you to experiment with?
Re: Launch HN: Saratoga Energy (YC W19), Better Carbon Nanotubes from Carbon Dioxide
#25So how are you guys and the rest of the industry going to manage the possible toxicity of carbon nanotubes?[1] It seems they get into people's lungs and then they never leave and cause mechanical damage much like asbestos presumably leading to difficult to treat cancers. Are you going to wait for these things to be in just about everything and then spend the next 50 years getting sued?
[1]https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/carbon-nanotube-d...
Re: Launch HN: Saratoga Energy (YC W19), Better Carbon Nanotubes from Carbon Dioxide
#26Hi Drew! What you're doing sounds awesome -- more power to you, both figuratively and literally! Hey, I'd love to see an "About Us" web page on your website with team bio's, list of VC's, etc. (Hey, you've already written half of that page in what you've posted here!). Also, please ignore the naysayers here. Everyone in history who has tried to advance science has always had naysayers, it's just the nature of what you're trying to do! Good luck, and I hope you succeed wildly!
Re: Launch HN: Saratoga Energy (YC W19), Better Carbon Nanotubes from Carbon Dioxide
#27> Our breakthrough in manufacturing cost enables battery manufacturers to use the optimal amount, allowing electric cars to safely recharge in 10 minutes or less. Well that's half the battle. The other half of the problem is delivering that amount of energy in 10 minutes, particularly in areas that are already maxing out their capacity on hot summer days.
My math may be a bit off but if you have a 230Ah battery (Telsa Model 3) and you want to charge it in 10 minutes you need something on the order of 1380A charging current even ignoring losses. At 350V, the voltage of the Tesla Model 3 battery pack, this is 483,000 Watts! There are major problems with this type of charging happening at scale at every level of the energy grid.
Re: Launch HN: Saratoga Energy (YC W19), Better Carbon Nanotubes from Carbon Dioxide
#28> Our breakthrough in manufacturing cost enables battery manufacturers to use the optimal amount, allowing electric cars to safely recharge in 10 minutes or less. Well that's half the battle. The other half of the problem is delivering that amount of energy in 10 minutes, particularly in areas that are already maxing out their capacity on hot summer days.
My math may be a bit off but if you have a 230Ah battery (Telsa Model 3) and you want to charge it in 10 minutes you need something on the order of 1380A charging current even ignoring losses. At 350V, the voltage of the Tesla Model 3 battery pack, this is 483,000 Watts! There are major problems with this type of charging happening at scale at every level of the energy grid.
This is for sure a tough challenge. I think supercharging stations charge at 400V and 250A for the model S. Porsche and others also have 800V chargers coming online.
Re: Launch HN: Saratoga Energy (YC W19), Better Carbon Nanotubes from Carbon Dioxide
#29Hi Drew! What you're doing sounds awesome -- more power to you, both figuratively and literally! Hey, I'd love to see an "About Us" web page on your website with team bio's, list of VC's, etc. (Hey, you've already written half of that page in what you've posted here!). Also, please ignore the naysayers here. Everyone in history who has tried to advance science has always had naysayers, it's just the nature of what yo…
Haha, thank you! Our site definitely needs an update. We have a more detailed website in the works! I'll keep you posted!
Re: Launch HN: Saratoga Energy (YC W19), Better Carbon Nanotubes from Carbon Dioxide
#30So how are you guys and the rest of the industry going to manage the possible toxicity of carbon nanotubes?[1] It seems they get into people's lungs and then they never leave and cause mechanical damage much like asbestos presumably leading to difficult to treat cancers. Are you going to wait for these things to be in just about everything and then spend the next 50 years getting sued? [1] https://www.scientificameri…
only certain types of carbon nanotubes that have a thick and rigid structure have asbestos-like qualities. These are no longer used outside of Asia. The thinner, flexible variety similar to the ones we make do not share these qualities an do not penetrate cell tissue. Similar to carbon black, which is a widely used nano-material in car tires. Carbon nanotubes are also sold in solution and in dispersion so they cannot easily become air born.