These capabilities would reduce military logistics burdens by providing fuel for on-site power generation while disposing of waste. Ultimately, MISER technology may be able to replace much of the fuel needs for electrical power in the field, a huge cost savings. Using packaging materials produced with environmentally sustainable methods would provide an additional benefit.

U. S. military land-based operations of the future are intended to be self-sustaining, with minimal logistics tails. When engaged in stationary field operations, units generate solid waste in the form of packaging materials for military meals-ready-to-eat and shrink-wrap for computers, tanks and vehicles. Personnel, fuel, and critical transport equipment are needed to remove and dispose of this packaging waste. The technology being developed is intended to cut down on waste removal and instead use it productively.

Plastic packaging waste has an energy content that approaches that of diesel fuel. Diesel fuel has a heating value of 43.9 mega joules per kilogram and hydrogen content of 12.5 percent. Plastic heating values can range from 26 to 43 mega joules per kilogram with a hydrogen content of five to 14 percent.

If the energy content of the waste is optimized for secondary use as a fuel source, at today's level of packaging being discarded, a military unit could achieve well over 100 percent self-sufficiency for its generator fuel needs. This will save the military millions of gallons of costly diesel fuel, and significantly reduce the logistics tail needed to deliver fuel to deployed forces.

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