Special Program Announcement for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) / Biological Technologies Office (BTO) Research Opportunity: Waste Upcycling for Defense (WUD)

Background
The announcement describes a fundamental research thrust, entitled “Waste Upcycling for Defense (WUD),” that aims to evaluate the technical feasibility of developing new methodologies to upcycle cellulose waste (scrap wood, cardboard, paper) into high-strength, large-scale densified wood products. This effort also seeks to reduce the energy & chemical requirements necessary to make densified wood through green chemical or biological methods. The opportunity is released under the current DARPA BTO Office Wide Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), HR001123S0045, entitled “Biological Technologies.”

Work Details
The program seeks abstracts and proposals focusing on exploring the technical risks in producing strong wood products cleanly, efficiently, and at a large scale from a feedstock of cellulose waste. It aims to develop methods for pre-processing scrap wood and paper product feedstock while maintaining fiber alignment, reducing chemical and energy requirements associated with the production of densified wood, developing products with favorable physical/mechanical properties, and increasing production scale to DoD-relevant sizes.

The program consists of one twenty-four (24) month phase focusing on optimizing the production of densified woods from waste wood and paper feedstock and methods for increasing the scale of finished products.

Period of Performance
The program consists of one twenty-four (24) month phase.