SOURCE: Materia, Inc.
October 01, 2008 12:00 ET
Materia Announces Army Funding for the Development of Fire Resistant Fuel Additives
PASADENA, CA--(Marketwire - October 1, 2008) - Materia announced today Army funding for the
development of fire resistant fuel additives. As described by the Army,
enemy combatants target fuel tanks so that small munitions and improvised
explosive devices (IEDs) can cause great loss of life through explosive
fuel combustion. Novel additives could provide superior protection against
these ballistic-initiated incendiary threats.
Materia's new program will leverage technology from Pasadena's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the California Institute of Technology
(Caltech). JPL's fundamental work demonstrated the efficacy of
polymer-based fuel misting control, which dramatically curtailed incendiary
damage to tested aircraft. More recently, Caltech's advancements in
polymer design enabled greater fire protection and reduced system
complexity without simultaneously harming fuel performance. The Materia
effort will synthesize and test "next
generation" additives for military-viable fire resistance and system
drop-in capability.
"We are excited that our technology may enable novel
polymeric materials with life-saving characteristics," stated Mark
Trimmer, Materia's Executive Vice President and Vice President of Research
and Development. "While this application is new for us, the underlying
chemistry has been under development at Materia for some time. We hope to
quickly meet the Army's performance targets with a scalable solution."
As described, military applications will remain the program focus although
successful product development could also benefit the commercial aviation
and automotive racing industries.
About Materia
Materia was founded in 1998 to commercialize olefin metathesis catalyst technology. This market-enabling, Nobel Prize-winning, green
chemical technology enables chemical compounds to be synthesized with
greater efficiency, under less stringent reaction conditions, and with
reduced byproducts and hazardous waste. Metathesis has been accepted as an
emerging "green technology" platform and has been broadly adopted by the
pharmaceutical, chemical, and polymer industries. As stated by the Royal
Swedish Academy of Sciences when awarding the 2005 Nobel Prize, "metathesis
is an example of how important basic science has been applied for the
benefit of man, society, and the environment." For more information, visit:
www.materia-inc.com.