Expeditionary Carbon Utilization for energy Resilience and Stabilization (ExCURSion)
Funding Agency:
- Department of Defense
The ExCURSion program aims to overcome key technical challenges to enable a closed-loop,
rechargeable, high-energy-density storage system for expeditionary energy by aggressively
exploring and evaluating the fundamental science of CO2 reduction, capture, and storage.
Advancements made during the ExCURSion program will enable the design and construction of
a carbon fuel cell prototype that is closed, portable, and fully rechargeable. Such a device will
generate electricity from fuel and capture its own CO2 exhaust for subsequent use as a raw
material to regenerate fuel upon input of external energy at a point of convenience, thus closing
the carbon cycle. The program (and a potential follow-on effort to build a prototype) will enable
safe, high-density, and rechargeable energy storage in the field.
ExCURSion’s goal faces two immediate challenges: 1) producing liquid fuel from CO2 is at least
30 times slower than lithium battery recharging; and 2) capturing and storing CO2 from exhaust
is plagued by the tradeoff between the working capacity and the stability of the materials used
for CO2 capture, storage, and release.
The ExCURSion program seeks revolutionary advances in two technical areas (TA): TA1 entails
CO2 reduction to high-energy-density fuel, primarily focusing on the rate of fuel generation. TA2
entails CO2 capture and storage, primarily focusing on working capacity and stability. The
program welcomes a wide range of approaches, including but not limited to: (for TA1) direct
electrolysis, photocatalytic reduction, thermochemical reduction, plasma-based reduction, or
other methods, and (for TA2) chemically reactive, physisorptive, and hybrid CO2 capture
methods.
It is expected that, in addition to development in traditional domains such as catalysis and
materials, achieving the metrics in this Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) could require
significant fundamental advancements in nanoscale control over local conditions such as
temperature, reagent concentration, pH, etc. Proposers are encouraged to capitalize on recent
developments in micro- and nanofluidic reactor design and construction, as well as synthesis of
functional nanomaterials to overcome rate-limiting mass and energy transport issues.
Because the goal of the program is to develop the science necessary to create a fully rechargeable
carbon fuel cell, proposers are encouraged to consider technologies that integrate different
aspects of the carbon cycle. Examples of such technologies include, but are not limited to:
reversible fuel/electrolysis cells, utilizing heat of CO2 adsorption for combustion process
intensification, reactive CO2 capture, etc.
Multiple awards are anticipated
April 29, 2024, 4:00 p.m.
BAA Coordinator
ExCURSion@darpa.mil