The objective of this Statement of Need was to develop innovative scalable synthetic approaches leading to production of energetic materials and their precursors that would eliminate or drastically reduce hazardous waste streams from nitration processes and other synthesis steps that are widely used in manufacturing energetic materials. Typical nitration processes of aromatic compounds, amines, and alcohols to produce C- Nitro, N-Nitro or Nitrate ester based energetics involve large quantities of strong acids (sulfuric and nitric) and produce large quantities of hazardous wastes. Solvents used in the preparation of these compounds were contaminated with the energetic material, hazardous reagents, or reaction bi-products and were not easily recycled. Multi-step reactions often lead to low overall yields or non-useful bi-products. In addition, typical reactions require rigorous temperature control and are therefore energy intensive processes.
Proposals should have focused on one of the following processes:
- Synthesis of an aromatic/heteroaromatic nitro compound (e.g. TNT, DNAN)
- Synthesis of a nitramine (e.g. RDX, HMX, CL-20)
- Synthesis of highly strained or cage compounds
- Synthesis of high nitrogen compounds
- Synthesis of a nitrate ester (plasticizer) (NG, TMETN, etc. or nitrocellulose)
Proposals also will be considered for more broad-based research to develop the fundamentals of synthetic methodologies as related to energetic materials with no specific targeted compounds. Proposed methodologies will need to be innovative and need to go beyond the previously investigated methods of recycle and reuse of solvents/reagents.
Desired technology attributes included:
- Demonstration of efficient process/es
- Reduction or elimination of solvents
- Improved yields
- Inexpensive and commercially available starting materials
- Improved lifecycle cost
- High purity isolated product/s
- Experimentation on production relevant equipment or equipment that can be scaled to production or pilot levels
- Compliance with relevant quality and performance specifications
A successful project would have produced enough material to complete product comparison using standard evaluation protocols. At a minimum, this should have included small scale sensitivity, crystallography, spectroscopy, compatibility and performance for relevant applications (e.g., detonation velocity, detonation pressure, burn rate, etc.). In the past, SERDP and other DoD agencies have explored electrochemical and biological methodologies as well as hybrid pathways involving combinations of synthetic biological and organic synthesis to produce energetic materials or to explore novel nitration pathways. Review of past efforts and relevant literature was advised.
Proposals were required include a go/no go task for an initial assessment of the human health and environmental impacts of proposed ingredients, formulations, and byproducts. In addition, proposals should have included a task to establish a baseline lifecycle framework and identify the elements of a lifecycle inventory that were already known, those that would have been investigated during the course of the project, and those that were beyond the scope of the proposed work.
Funded projects will appear below as project overviews are posted to the website.
