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Nanotube Firm Building Pilot Plant
ANN THAYER
Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc. (CNI) has signed an engineering services contract with engineering firm Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), part of Halliburton, to build a pilot plant for producing single-walled carbon nanotubes. Houston-based CNI was founded early last year by Rice University professor and Nobel Laureate Richard E. Smalley, former Lyondell Petrochemical CEO Bob Gower, and others from Rice University to commercialize carbon nanotubes.
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MOVING UP Smalley, in front of a carbon nanotube laboratory reactor brought from Rice, speaks at "groundbreaking" for CNI's new pilot plant. |
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The pilot plant, to be completed by the end of this year at KBR's Houston technology center, will produce 200 to 300 g per day. Process improvements to upgrade production efficiency are expected to increase that to about 1 kg per day by mid-2002.
CNI intends to be much more than a manufacturer of exotic materials, anticipating that it will participate in carbon nanotube product and market development. "The game is now afoot," Smalley says. "We think we can turn this into something real."
CNI will use production from the new plant in collaborative development projects. Electronic uses, such as flat-panel displays or electromagnetic shielding, are expected to be among the nearest term applications. The company says it hopes it will be facing the need for commercial-scale production in 18 to 24 months.
The company has also found a new home, moving off the Rice campus and now leasing office and laboratory space at KBR's technology center. In April, it received funding of $15 million from chemical industry and high-technology entrepreneurs Gordon Cain and William McMinn.
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