FUELS AND COMBUSTION TECHNOLOGIES FOR AEROSPACE PROPULSION II | FOA AFRL RQKP 2015 0001

Opportunity Information: Apply for FOA AFRL RQKP 2015 0001

FUELS AND COMBUSTION TECHNOLOGIES FOR AEROSPACE PROPULSION II is an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) research and development funding opportunity focused on advancing the fuels, combustion processes, and supporting fuel system technologies used in aerospace propulsion, with particular relevance to current and next-generation weapons systems. The program is set up to support a broad, integrated research effort that connects fuel chemistry and materials behavior to real combustion hardware performance, emphasizing how fuels and additives behave across the full range of operating conditions that military propulsion systems experience. The agency is looking for work that not only improves fundamental understanding, but also demonstrates practical applicability through testing and evaluation in representative experimental rigs and combustion systems.

A central theme of the opportunity is advanced fuels and fuel technologies, including the measurement and characterization of fuel properties that matter for propulsion performance, safety, operability, and emissions. This includes detailed analysis of fuels and fuel components to better understand fuel chemistry, how fuels respond to thermal and oxidative stress, and how those behaviors translate into system-level effects. The solicitation highlights experimental work that exposes fuels to wide ranges of temperatures and pressures using test rigs of different scales and complexity, indicating interest in both fundamental tests and higher-fidelity demonstrations that approximate real engine environments. The program also calls out the evaluation of fuels and fuel additives within combustion systems to quantify their influence on both gaseous emissions and particulate emissions, signaling that combustion cleanliness and signature-related considerations are part of the technical scope.

Another major area is propulsion hardware and integration, specifically fuel system component development and safety, as well as advanced combustor and augmentor designs. This suggests the effort is not limited to fuel formulation alone; it also includes the components and architectures that store, deliver, meter, and burn those fuels reliably. By linking component development with combustor and augmentor concepts, the opportunity points toward integrated solutions where fuel properties, thermal management needs, stability limits, ignition behavior, and emissions outcomes are considered together rather than in isolation. The goal is to mature technologies that can be incorporated into advanced aerospace applications, including demanding weapon-system duty cycles.

The solicitation also explicitly includes technologies to prevent and mitigate fuel biodeterioration, implying an interest in fuel stability during storage and use, and in approaches that reduce microbial contamination or degradation pathways that can harm fuel quality, system reliability, or maintenance burden. In addition, it calls for studies of innovative catalysts aimed at improved combustion performance and for endothermic fuel applications. That combination indicates interest in catalytic or chemically assisted pathways that can enhance ignition, stability, efficiency, or emissions performance, as well as concepts where the fuel is used as a heat sink (endothermic applications) to support thermal management while potentially altering fuel composition in ways that affect downstream combustion.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary funding opportunity issued by the Air Force Research Lab under Funding Opportunity Number FOA AFRL-RQKP-2015-0001 and CFDA 12.800, categorized under Science and Technology and other Research and Development. The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, which typically implies substantial government involvement during performance (for example, collaboration on technical direction, test planning, and demonstration activities). Eligibility is listed as unrestricted. The opportunity anticipated a single award with an award ceiling of $70,000,000. The posting was created on 2015-09-11 with an original closing date of 2015-10-20.

Overall, the program is best understood as an AFRL-led effort to push the state of the art in aerospace propulsion fuels and combustion by combining fuel chemistry and property measurement, component and combustor/augmentor development, rigorous high-temperature/high-pressure experimentation, emissions assessment for both gases and particulates, and enabling technologies like catalysts and endothermic fuel approaches, while also addressing practical sustainment concerns such as biodeterioration. The expected outcome is a set of validated, experimentally demonstrated technologies that can transition into advanced weapons-system propulsion environments across all relevant operating conditions.

• The Air Force -- Research Lab in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FUELS AND COMBUSTION TECHNOLOGIES FOR AEROSPACE PROPULSION II" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.800.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2015-09-11.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2015-10-20. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $70,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted.

Apply for FOA AFRL RQKP 2015 0001

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