The University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) has been awarded a nearly $50 million six-year research grant from the Air Force to develop advanced fuels and combustion technologies. The award follows last year’s $10 million contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory to design and operate the new Assured Aerospace Fuels Research Laboratory at nearby Wright-Patterson AFB. “Advances in fuels and combustion technologies are critical to advances in aerospace propulsion systems for 21st-century military and commercial aircraft,” said Dilip Ballal, the head of UDRI’s energy and environmental division and head of its von Ohain Fuels and Combustion Center. “Our focus will be to design new and improve existing technologies that will not only meet the demands of evolving aircraft systems, but will do so with minimal environmental impact.” A key area in the new program will be the development, validation and field testing of synthetic fuels, including biofuels from varied feed stocks. Part of the research will be aimed at developing tailored fuels with increased temperature tolerance ranges, allowing engines to run hotter and more efficiently and produce fewer carbon deposits, or have greater freezing resistance at high altitudes.