Materia Announces Army Funding for the Development of Fire Resistant Fuel Additives

Materia announced today Army funding for the development of fire resistant fuel additives. As described by the Army, enemy combatants target fuel tanks so that small munitions and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) can cause great loss of life through explosive fuel combustion. Novel additives could provide superior protection against these ballistic-initiated incendiary threats.

Materia's new program will leverage technology from Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). JPL's fundamental work demonstrated the efficacy of polymer-based fuel misting control, which dramatically curtailed incendiary damage to tested aircraft. More recently, Caltech's advancements in polymer design enabled greater fire protection and reduced system complexity without simultaneously harming fuel performance. The Materia effort will synthesize and test "next generation" additives for military-viable fire resistance and system drop-in capability.

"We are excited that our technology may enable novel polymeric materials with life-saving characteristics," stated Mark Trimmer, Materia's Executive Vice President and Vice President of Research and Development. "While this application is new for us, the underlying chemistry has been under development at Materia for some time. We hope to quickly meet the Army's performance targets with a scalable solution."

As described, military applications will remain the program focus although successful product development could also benefit the commercial aviation and automotive racing industries.

About Materia

Materia was founded in 1998 to commercialize olefin metathesis catalyst technology. This market-enabling, Nobel Prize-winning, green chemical technology enables chemical compounds to be synthesized with greater efficiency, under less stringent reaction conditions, and with reduced byproducts and hazardous waste. Metathesis has been accepted as an emerging "green technology" platform and has been broadly adopted by the pharmaceutical, chemical, and polymer industries. As stated by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences when awarding the 2005 Nobel Prize, "metathesis is an example of how important basic science has been applied for the benefit of man, society, and the environment." For more information, visit: www.materia-inc.com .

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Contact: John Kibler Director, Corporate Development Materia, Inc. (626) 584-8400 Email Contact www.materia-inc.com