Teams Selected to Produce Critical, On-Demand Stocks from Military Waste

COLUMBUS, Ohio (January 13, 2021)—Warfighters are burdened with transporting and disposing of single-use materials, and have limited ability to create valuable materials when and where needed. To address these challenges, DARPA has selected teams from Battelle, Iowa State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Michigan Technological University, in addition to government partners from the Idaho, Savannah River, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories to support the ReSource Program.

Performers are tasked with engineering user-friendly, self-contained, integrated systems that rapidly produce large quantities of supplies from materials that would otherwise be considered waste.

A versatile, operationally relevant system that converts single-use resources into edible macronutrients, tactical fibers, adhesives, and petroleum, oils, and lubricants (POLs) will be developed in the ReSource program. If successful, the program will support independent expeditionary units and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) stabilization operations in resource-limited environments.

"The ReSource program could fundamentally improve how the Department of Defense approaches waste management, shifting away from burning, burying, and shipping burdensome waste to onsite material conversion of waste from a less valuable form to a strategic resource," noted Dr. Blake Bextine, ReSource program manager. "The systems will require little energy, run continuously, be scalable, and available on-demand based on warfighter need."

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