Request for Information (RFI) Efficient reduction of carbon and nitrogen at point of need

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is requesting information concerning research and development of high-efficiency reduction of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) to enable capabilities to produce a variety of compounds and materials. Specifically of interest is research on scalable, deployable processes to convert ubiquitous starting materials to reduce C and N at or near ambient conditions at efficiencies far closer to theoretical limits for those compounds/materials. This RFI seeks methods that address two of the major hurdles that stand between today’s lengthy, vulnerable, fossil-fueled supply lines and the distributed capabilities to produce an array of compounds/materials under ambient conditions: (1) the precise control of chemical reactions involving the reduction of nitrogen or carbon through novel materials and processes that increase reaction efficiencies; and (2) tools for the design and production of micro-reactors at vast scales.