OUSD (R&E) CRITICAL TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Advanced Materials The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120-130, which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services, including export of sensitive technical data, or the Export Administration Regulation (EAR), 15 CFR Parts 730-774, which controls dual use items. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals (FNs), their country(ies) of origin, the type of visa or work permit possessed, and the statement of work (SOW) tasks intended for accomplishment by the FN(s) in accordance with the Announcement. Offerors are advised foreign nationals proposed to perform on this topic may be restricted due to the technical data under US Export Control Laws. OBJECTIVE: The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120-130, which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services, including export of sensitive technical data, or the Export Administration Regulation (EAR), 15 CFR Parts 730-774, which controls dual use items. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals (FNs), their country(ies) of origin, the type of visa or work permit possessed, and the statement of work (SOW) tasks intended for accomplishment by the FN(s) in accordance with the Announcement. Offerors are advised foreign nationals proposed to perform on this topic may be restricted due to the technical data under US Export Control Laws. Objective: The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) seeks to provide responsive, best value supplies of related materials consistently to our Department of Defense (DoD) customers and other DoD stakeholders. DLA continually investigates diverse technologies for new or improved materials, more efficient means of their production, and more competitive domestic supply chains which would lead to higher levels of innovation in current and future weapon systems combined with benefits to other commercial and government technology applications. Advanced technology demonstrations for increasing production capacity, affordability and supply chain resiliency for critical materials and processing are of high interest to DoD. These areas of materials and manufacturing technology provide potential opportunities toward achieving breakthrough advances for national defense. Proposed efforts funded under this topic may encompass diverse materials and processing at any level that will result in increasing production capacity, affordablity, and supply chain resiliency. Research and Development (R&D) efforts selected under this topic shall demonstrate and involve a degree of risk where the technical feasibility of the proposed work has not been fully established. Further, proposed efforts must be judged to be at a Technology and/or Manufacturing Readiness Level (TRL/MRL) 6 or less, but greater than TRL/MRL 3 to receive funding consideration. TRL 3. (Analytical and Experimental Critical Function and/or Characteristic Proof of Concept) TRL 6. (System/Subsystem Model or Prototype Demonstration in a Relevant Environment) DESCRIPTION: DLA R&D is looking for domestic capabilities and capacity to recover strategic materials from e-waste via novel recovery techniques that increase the domestic availability of technology for supply chain resiliency of strategic materials. R&D tasks include identifying, developing, and demonstrating new and/or improved fundamental scientific understanding and the recovery of critical materials in small volume fraction in a multi-component mixture. E-waste presents a strategic opportunity to receover critical elements currently in the economy as end of life hardware, but we are faced with a limited fundamental understanding of extracting numerous low-volume fraction components with sufficient purity and yield. Related areas of interest include development of software tools that builds up on existing open-source and commercially available databases for fractional separation of multi-component mixtures. PHASE I: Not to exceed a duration of 6 months and cost of $100,000 Chemical separation of multi-component mixtures such as e-waste is achieved by exploiting the energy and enthalpy landscape of the components. Fractional separation builds upon this fundamental understanding by exploiting the difference in energy levels needed to uniquely separate two or more components in the mixture. In the case of e-waste, this fundamental knowledge is lacking, and this program aims to address this need through advanced mathematical modeling (e.g., relative thermodynamic stability of multi-component mixtures, corrosion models, mechanical degradation models, etc.,), and apply this fundamental knowledge for fractional recovery of critical elements from e-waste. Collboartion with a relavant DoD Component organzation (e.g., DoD lab and/or defense system program office) and one or more relavant DoD weapon system supply chain participants or other suitable organization is highly desirable. The ultimate goal of this program is to develop the mathematical models into a software package that can inform process control for recycling by the broader industry community to convert a plurality of feedstock into raw mateirals for manufacturing. PHASE II: Not to exceed a duration of 18 months and cost of $1,800,000. Develop and mature the software package for critical materials recovery from a commercial e-waste feedstock (phones, tablets, cameras, other communication hardware). Develop applicable and feasible software modules with appropriate GUI and HCI to demonstrate the fractional recovery of critical elements from e-waste in a virtual environment Develop a technoeconomic analysis software that combines recovery technology and prevalent market conditions that can inform an end-user (recyclers). Performers should identify methods to validate the feasibility of their approach innovation for DLA and key DoD stakeholders, and outline their validation strategy in the proposal. Validation would include, but is not limited to, prototype quantities, data analysis, laboratory tests, system simulations, operation in test-beds, or operation in a demonstration system. Collboartion with a relavant DoD Component organzation (e.g., DoD lab and/or defense system program office) and one or more relavant DoD weapon system supply chain participants or other suitable organization is highly desirable. Identify commercial benefit or application opportunities of the innovation. Innovative processes should be developed with the intent to readily transition to production in support of DoD and its supply chains. PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Expand the scope of this software package for refining by mining and processing industry. REFERENCES: 1. Coates, G. and Rahimifard, S. (2009). Modelling of Post Fragmentation Waste Stream Processing withing UK Shredder Facilities. Waste Management 2. Schaik, A and Reuter, M. (2010) Dynamic Modelling of E-Waste Recycling System Performance Based on Product Design. Minerals Engineering 3. T. Gutowski (2008) Thermodynamics & Recycling, A Review. IEEE International Symposium on Electronics & the Environment KEYWORDS: e-waste, critical materials, recycler, thermodynamics, separation
