DARPA chooses Physical Sciences to generate power from carbon dioxide for battlefield battery charging

ARLINGTON, Va. – U.S. military researchers needed a way to generate fuel from local sources of carbon dioxide to provide electric power and battery charging on the battlefield. They found a solution from Physical Sciences Inc. in Andover, Mass.

Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., announced a $2.1 million contract to Physical Sciences last week for the Expeditionary Carbon Utilization for Energy Resilience and Stabilization (ExCURSion) project.

Portable energy storage

Batteries and fossil fuels dominate today's technologies for portable energy storage and use by expeditionary forces, DARPA researchers explain. While batteries can be recharged from any voltage source, most chargers suffer from energy density so low as to make them infeasible for military missions that require low size, weight, and power consumption (SWaP). Although hydrocarbon-based fossil fuels have much higher energy density, they still require regular, costly, and dangerous resupply.

Instead, DARPA researchers are asking Physical Sciences to find ways to generate fuel from local sources of carbon dioxide to combine the high energy density of fossil fuels with the energy-source-agnostic advantage of electric systems to revolutionize expeditionary energy logistics. More companies could receive contracts.

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Combining carbon dioxide capture and storage with carbon dioxide reduction to energy-storing fuel would enable a completely closed system able to capture its own combustion stream and recharge its fuel content on energy input, researchers say.

Such a system could take advantage of the high energy density of traditional fossil fuels and the operational flexibility of an electric battery system.

Carbon dioxide capture

The ExCURSion program seeks to enable carbon dioxide reduction, capture, and storage as key components for a future self-enclosed system to create liquid carbon fuels for storage and use on military missions. This approach could enable safe, field-deployable, high-density, and rechargeable energy storage.

The goals of the ExCURSion proposers day are to introduce the research community to the ExCURSion program vision and goals; explain the mechanics of a DARPA program and milestones; and encourage teaming among potential bidders.

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A carbon fuel cell prototype that is closed, portable, rechargeable, will generate electricity from fuel, and capture its own CO2 exhaust to regenerate fuel. The program and a potential follow-on prototype effort will enable safe, high-density, and rechargeable energy storage in the field.

ExCURSion confronts two primary challenges: producing liquid fuel from CO2 is at least 30 times slower than lithium battery recharging; and capturing and storing CO2 from exhaust is plagued by the tradeoff between the working capacity and the stability of the materials used.

ExCURSion has two technical areas: CO2 reduction to high-energy-density fuel, primarily focusing on the rate of fuel generation; and CO2 capture and storage, primarily focusing on working capacity and stability.

For more information contact Physical Sciences online at www.psicorp.com, or DARPA at www.darpa.mil/research/programs/expeditionary-carbon-utilization-for-energy-resilience-and-stabilization.