GREEN ARMY TECH
GREEN ANNOUNCEMENT
Honorable Douglas Bush, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, provides opening remarks at the U.S Army xTechPrime finals event in December 2023, where the Army announced three small businesses as the winners under the climate and clean tech topic area. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army xTech Program)
mature the next generation of hydrogen storage technology— allowing for increased clean energy storage on electric vehicle platforms. In that same vein, the hydrogen generator solicitation aims to create a contingency system to assist these electric vehi- cles should they run out of fuel.
Tese programmatic efforts have helped clean technology use cases flourish across the Army landscape. In addition to the mechanisms offered by the ASA(ALT) Office of Army Prize Competitions and Army Applied SBIR Program, Army orga- nizations are addressing challenges beyond enhancing their capabilities, such as tackling Soldier water shortages in remote locations and reducing hazardous emissions produced by large vehicles.
Inspired by the Army’s Climate Strategy, Army transition partners have continuously sought ways to maintain strategic advan- tages while deliberately reducing their carbon footprint. Tese requirements helped influence the U.S. Army Combat Capabil- ities Development Command Ground Vehicle Systems Center’s (DEVCOM GVSC) small business solicitations for conformable hydrogen storage and hydrogen generators.
“It’s important to note that all our efforts, including those like the conformable hydrogen storage and hydrogen genera- tor solicitations, remain focused on making our warfighters and formations more capable and lethal first,” said Benjamin Pacz- kowski, a chemical engineer with DEVCOM GVSC. “However, these technologies help address the Army Climate Strategy by enabling the development of zero emissions powertrains—specif- ically hydrogen fuel cells.”
Trough the SBIR contracts awarded under the conformable hydrogen storage solicitation, the Army seeks to develop and
As these contracts have progressed, DEVCOM GVSC’s fuel cell team has assisted the Program Executive Office for Combat Support and Combat Service Support Product Manager for Ground Mobility Vehicles with their ongoing research and eval- uation of fuel cell-based mobile vehicle chargers for locations without infrastructure.
“Conformable hydrogen storage will allow for future vehicles to have a similar range and capability as current platforms,” Pacz- kowski said. “Te hydrogen generator system will create energy on-demand from a chemical reaction—providing confidence by dramatically increasing operational duration.”
XTECH’S GREEN EDGE ASA(ALT)’s framework for long-term climate mitigation spans across efforts from the xTech program—which optimizes the solicitation of clean technologies via a prize competition model. Te program launched in 2018 and has since run over 30 competitions to request dual-use technology solutions from nontraditional innovators under an umbrella of challenge areas that impact the Army. One of these challenge areas includes clean tech—a technology ecosystem that has grown into a signature topic for xTech over the past couple of years.
XTech launched its first clean tech-specific prize competition, xTechSBIR Clean Tech, in April 2022 following the release of the Army Climate Strategy. Te program launch received nearly 200 submissions for Soldier-operative solutions that could also offer climate change mitigation. Only three months after the compe- tition’s launch, xTech announced 24 winners, who each received $10,000 in cash prizes and the chance to submit for an Army SBIR Phase I contract award valued up to $250,000 or a Direct to Phase II contract award worth up to $1.9 million.
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