The United States Marine Corps (USMC) requires high-pressure nitrogen gas at forward operating locations to perform essential maintenance tasks, including aircraft and ground vehicle tire servicing, recoil mechanism servicing, recharging of gas suspension and accumulator components, and filling gas cylinders. Historically, the military relies on pre-filled, heavy steel gas cylinders resupplied through a vulnerable logistics chain. This process creates a severe logistical burden and hazardous material handling risk. Generating nitrogen at the point of need is essential to sustaining mission readiness in distributed, austere, and expeditionary environments consistent with USMC Force Design 2030 and Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) concepts. The final product will be employed by USMC maintainers operating from forward tactical enclosures, specifically integrating with the JLTV Electronic Maintenance Shelter (JEMS). The system will provide point-of-need, high-purity nitrogen to service tactical vehicle and aircraft tires, hydraulic accumulators, recoil mechanisms, and suspension struts in support of distributed expeditionary operations.
While the USMC currently utilizes a legacy portable nitrogen generation system, it presents severe technical limitations that hinder expeditionary operations. First, the legacy system weighs 450 pounds, severely limiting mobility and requiring a four-person lift. Second, it requires 240-volt single-phase electrical power drawing 25 Amps. This exceeds the standard 120-volt, 25-Amp electrical limits of forward tactical enclosures, such as the Joint Expeditionary Maintenance Shelter (JEMS). Third, the current system only achieves 99.0% nitrogen purity (falling short of the required 99.5% for sensitive aviation and vehicle struts) and suffers from extremely slow flow rates, taking up to 6 hours to fill a standard 244-cubic-foot cylinder.
Commercial industry has introduced 120-volt single-phase configurations that achieve high purity. However, these state-of-the-art commercial units fall short of expeditionary physical requirements: they weigh in excess of 650 pounds, require separate external air compressors to operate, and maximize output at only 3,000 pounds per square inch (PSI). No known existing solution simultaneously achieves man-portable weight limits, 120-volt/25-Amp operation, self-contained air compression, high purity (Develop and demonstrate a man-portable, self-contained nitrogen generator capable of producing high-purity (equal to or less than 99.5%) nitrogen at 1,800 to 3,500 pounds per square inch (PSI), operating strictly within a 120-volt, 25-Amp single-phase electrical limit to support United States Marine Corps (USMC) expeditionary maintenance operations.
This SBIR topic seeks innovative small business proposals to design, develop, demonstrate, and deliver a prototype device for a man-portable, energy-efficient, self-contained nitrogen generator that overcomes the stated limitations. Proposed approaches may include advanced membrane separation, pressure swing adsorption (PSA) with novel sorbent materials, hybrid separation architectures, lightweight composite enclosures, advanced electric motor/compressor technologies, intelligent power management, or other innovative approaches that meaningfully advance the state of the art. The prototype device must address extreme environmental challenges, specifically maintaining gas separation efficiency in high heat and high humidity, and must physically fit within tactical maintenance shelters.
The prototype device shall target the following performance parameters to bound the scope of effort, while remaining open to innovative approaches that may refine specific parameters:
Performance Parameter Phase II Threshold (T = Minimum Acceptable) Phase II Objective (O = Desired)
Output Pressure (Selectable/Continuous): No less than 3,500 PSI (T); Greater than 3500 PSI (O)
Nitrogen Purity: =/- 99.5% (T); =/- 99.99% (O)
Continuous Output Flow Rate: =/- 60 Standard Cubic Feet per Hour (SCFH) (T); =/- 120 SCFH (O)
System Weight & Transportability: =/+ 250 lbs total. Must include two-wheeled cart configuration. System can break down into modular components where no single module exceeds the two-person lift limits defined in MIL-STD-1472 (T); =/+ 150 lbs total. System can break down into modular components where no single module exceeds the two-person lift limits defined in MIL-STD-1472 (O)
Form Factor/Size Limits: Must physically clear a 51.5 in (W) x 64.5 in (H) shelter door Modular, compact footprint (e.g., =/+ 30 in x 30 in base) (T = O)
Electrical Power Input: =/+ 3.4 kW, 120 VAC (single-phase, 50-60 Hz, max 25-Amp draw) (T): =/+ 3 kW, 120 VAC (single-phase) AND/OR 28V DC (Tactical Vehicle Integration) (O)
Operational Temperature: 40°F to +90°F (-32°C to +49°C) (T); -40°F to +140°F (-40°C to +60°C) (O)
Operational Humidity: Operable in 0% to 95% Relative Humidity (RH) (T); Operable in up to 100% RH (condensing) (O)
Proposals shall clearly identify the selected nitrogen generation approach, provide a credible technical basis for meeting the target performance parameters (particularly regarding thermal/moisture management and weight reduction), demonstrate awareness of the state of the art, and demonstrate that the effort is achievable within SBIR Phase I and Phase II timelines.
