The Rice University, Houston, TX, USA, has created a Green Carbon Center to bring the benefits offered by oil, gas, coal, wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and other energy sources together in a way that will not only help ensure the world’s energy future but also provide a means to recycle carbon dioxide into useful products.

They want the center to partner with energy companies – including oil, natural gas and coal – to make carbon a profitable resource. It is intended to be a think tank for ideas about the future of energy with a focus on green carbon and the technological know-how to back it up. As part of Rice’s Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, the Green Carbon Center will draw upon the combined knowledge of the university’s nanotechnology experts.

The Rice researchers think that the rapid expansion of solar and wind energy and the promise of a hydrogen-based energy economy do not negate the continuing, long-term need for carbon-based energy, particularly since so many American jobs depend on the digging, drilling and distribution of fossil fuels.

• Green carbon as a bridge to renewable energy,
  James M. Tour, Carter Kittrell, Vicki L. Colvin,
  Nature Mat. 2010, 9, 871 – 874.
  DOI: 10.1038/nmat2887
• Green Carbon Center
• video about the center