US military seeks more domestic chemical capacity

The US Department of Defense (DOD) is looking to fund private industry projects that will expand US production of 28 chemicals, including propellants, dyes, and ingredients for fuel and explosive formulations. The funding is intended to scale up synthetic methods for the chemicals from the bench to pilot- and demonstration-scale plants. Each project will be eligible for $1 million to $24 million, parceled out over 5 years. In an earlier round of the same basic program, the DOD provided seven US companies with a total of $192.5 million in capital expenditure support. In a separate initiative, the DOD handed out more than $23 million this summer in grants for start-up companies to design fermentation plants for defense chemicals, food, and fuel. The overall goal is to build critical chemical supply chains that don’t depend on adversarial nations, says Marta Pazos, a federal contractor who works with the DOD and other