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The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has released a tender for the exploration of energy alternatives for the military. Officials said DARPA has sought proposals from companies and universities that would increase fuel efficiency and produce biofuel for military jets from agriculture or aquaculture crops.

“DARPA seeks processes that use limited sources of external energy, that are adaptable to a range or blend of feedstock crop oils, and that produce process by-products that have ancillary manufacturing or industrial value,” the agency said.

Officials said commercial alternatives to traditional fuel have not met the higher energy density and wide-operating temperature range required for military aviation uses. They said the Pentagon has designed a program entitled BioFuels to convert crop oil to military aviation fuel, known as JP-8. Those invited to participate in the competition would deliver at least 100 liters of JP-8 surrogate biofuel for initial government laboratory testing.

On July 25, DARPA briefed prospective bidders on the program in Denver Colo. The agency plans to achieve a 60 percent or greater conversion efficiency of crop oil. Officials said the agency envisions increasing the efficiency to 90 percent conversions.

So far, biodiesel fuels have been 25 percent lower in energy density than JP-8. Officials said biodiesel did not flow properly at low temperatures in the atmosphere.

“It is anticipated that the key technology developments needed to obtain the program goal will result from a cross-disciplinary approach spanning the fields of process chemistry and engineering, materials engineering, biotechnology, and propulsion system engineering,” the agency said.