As an indication of the scale of R&D funding in this space IBM...

As an indication of the scale of R&D funding in this space IBM has spent to date $100 000 000 in developing a carbon - graphene chip - which they announced last year .The EU has allocated 100 000 000 euros over 2012 - 2014 for R&D in the graphene space mainly spread over EU research institutes and EU companies . Graphite requires functionalization and this is a complex area . Fuel cells and OPV - Organic Photovoltaic solar cells are other very important areas . The main space for other carbon precursors are gasses . In the USA gas is 4 times cheaper than in the EU with no Russian pipelines and there are huge quantities commercially available in the USA. Carbon from this source can be competitively functionalized and impurities such as hydrogen can be separated economically.