WASHINGTON, July 12 (UPI) -- The U.S. military wants to reduce its dependence on oil to power its aircraft, vehicles and ships, and is seeking plant-based materials to replace petroleum fuels.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency last week published a request for biodiesel fuels produced from plants, algae, fungi and bacteria that would be suitable for military use. The current generation of biodiesel fuels does not satisfy the energy density or wide range of temperatures required.
"The primary technical objective of the BioFuels program is to achieve a 60 percent or greater conversion efficiency, by energy content, of crop oil to JP-8 surrogate and elucidate a path to 90 percent conversion," states DARPA.
DARPA is not interested in redesigning aircraft, vehicles and non-nucelar ships to accept a new fuel. It is seeking ways to make "green" fuels work in military applications.
"It is anticipated that the key technology developments needed to obtain the program goal will result from a cross-disciplinary approach spanning the fields of process chemistry and engineering, materials engineering, biotechnology, and propulsion system engineering. The key challenges are to develop and optimize process technologies to obtain a maximum conversion of crop oil to fuel," states the DARPA solicitation, posted last week.
Offerors have one year to deliver 100 liters of JP_8 surrogate biofuel for government laboratory qualification.
