ACMI Federal on Thursday it has received a $15 million contract extension from the Defense Department to expand a pilot program designed to strengthen the defense industrial base for chemicals.
In the first phase of the Critical Chemical Pilot Program, ACMI Federal exceeded its goal of leveraging a 10-1 ratio of private to public investment for the pilot by achieving a 16-1 ratio, the company said. Under the pilot effort, ACMI Federal leverages private capital and pursues commercial market solutions for inert chemicals that can be used in energetic applications used in munitions.
ACMI Federal, part of Texas-based American Center for Manufacturing Innovation, said it has also developed and validated three approaches for domestic production of critical chemicals in the areas of demand aggregation, commercial market adaptation, and process innovation.
ACMI said it cannot disclose the chemicals or companies it is working with but offered that “there has been engagement with the cosmetics, general industrial and pharmaceuticals industries to support target chemical development and production. Solutions evaluated range from traditional batch production to continuous flow chemistry, biomanufacturing and other novel methods of production to support onshoring of this important part of the supply chain.”
In the area of demand aggregation, ACMI said it is working with a commercial chemical company to adapt their approach to produce a precursor of an energetic material that has not been available in the U.S. for nearly 20 years.
Under the contract extension, ACMI said it will continue seeking additional private investment with the potential for a 25-1 private to public funding ratio. The company will also expand the list of chemicals under study, and bring in new academic and commercial partners.
ACMI said that $10 million of the new funding will be directed toward specific chemicals, including modernizing batch processes, continuous flow chemistry, sustainable materials and processes, and other innovations. The rest of the funds will go toward tooling and innovation for munitions technology to include hardware and production machinery and support to scale up manufacturing.
DoD’s Industrial Base Policy Office in August 2022 launched the chemical manufacturing pilot program with ACMI with a focus on advanced manufacturing technology for commercial and military applications that can quickly be scaled to production.