Alternative Energy Sources for Heating Rations

Texas Research Institute Austin Inc. (TRI/Austin) proposes to develop, evaluate, and commercialize an alternative tray ration heating system (ATRHS) that will utilize heat from diesel engine exhaust. The heat from the vehicle exhaust will be used to directly heat the water in the ATRHS or stored in heat storage modules for later use. The heat storage modules will utilize phase change material (PCM) to store heat from the exhaust and supply that heat to the ATRHS when the diesel engine has not been run for a period time. A design effort will be conducted based on empirical data collected from a HMMWV and component testing conducted during the Phase I Option effort. From the design effort a bench-top prototype system will be built and exercised to appropriately size all of the components in the overall system. An Engineering Evaluation system will be constructed and delivered to the Marine Corps System Command for field testing and evaluation. Feedback from the testing and evaluation period will be incorporated into the overall system design during a design optimization process. All manufacturing systems necessary to build the system will be defined and the documentation necessary to operate the system will be generated.