October 10, 2017 – The Army awarded a contract to Skyhaven Systems’ principals to develop a new process for converting nitrocellulose into usable byproducts. There are currently 8.7 million pounds of M6 propellant that is past its useful lifetime degrading into unstable, explosive products.  The most widely used method of propellant disposal is controlled open burning/detonation; however, there are environmental concerns regarding this disposal technique due to emissions of greenhouse gases, toxic metals, and acidic gases into the environment. The Department of Defense is looking for biogenic processes for converting propellants, specifically M6, into useful byproducts.  Recent work has demonstrated a process involving a hydrolysis step and subsequent biodegradation for the conversion of M6 and pure nitrocellulose into bio-ethanol.  Skyhaven Principals are presently developing a novel non-thermal plasma assisted hydrolysis process to first convert a nitrocellulose-containing mixture into cellulose and glucose, which then can be subsequently converted into ethanol using a fermentation process.