Biodegradable Foam RFI.pdf

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

United States Coast Guard Research and Development Center

Market Research for Biodegradable Use of Foam Materials in Western Rivers Buoys Construction

In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201 “Exchanges with industry before receipt of proposals”

THIS NOTICE IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI).

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP) OR A REQUEST FOR QUOTATIONS

(RFQ). UNSOLICITED PROPOSALS OR ANY OTHER TYPES OF OFFERS WILL NOT BE

CONSIDERED IN RESPONSE TO THIS RFI. NO CONTRACT WILL BE AWARDED

PURSUANT TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. PHONE CALLS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED AND

EMAILS WILL NOT BE RESPONDED TO.

DISCLAIMER: This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. Neither unsolicited proposals nor any other kind of offers will be considered in response to this RFI. Responses to this notice are not offers and will not be accepted by the US Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked “proprietary” will be handled accordingly.

Please segregate proprietary information in your response. All submissions become US Government property and will not be returned.

DESCRIPTION:

This Request for Information (RFI) is part of a market research effort by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) to determine if there is an environmentally sound, biodegradable, and cost-efficient alternative to the foam core used in steel river buoys that provides similar performance characteristics but naturally degrades over time and minimizes foam waste in the environment. Ultimately, the RFI will support the USCG with identifying environmentally sound alternatives to plastic foam in river ATON buoys.

The goal of this RFI is to investigate/identify biodegradable foam materials that are environmentally friendly.

All submissions of technology for this RFI should be a Technical Readiness Level (TRL) 7 or higher as defined in Figure 1 of the US Government Accountability Office’s Technology Readiness Assessment Guide.

https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-20-48g.pdf https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-20-48g.pdf

BACKGROUND

The Coast Guard (CG) manages and maintains an inventory of nearly 15,000 steel-hulled, foam-filled buoys in the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri River System (Western Rivers) as aids to navigation (ATON).

The current construction of these buoys is comprised of thin 14- and 16-gauge steel (for 4th and 6th class buoys, respectively) with the internal void area filled with a petroleum based polyurethane foam core to improve buoy survivability, buoyancy, and resiliency. The dimensions are as follows; 4th class (4CR and 4NR) ≈ 18.4 cubic feet per buoy (0.5 cubic meters) of expanded foam and 6th class (6CR and 6NR) ≈ 6.4 cubic feet per buoy (0.2 cubic meters) of expanded foam. The Coast Guard is looking for novel biodegradable foam solutions to minimize the environmental impact. For river buoy designs, the CG is looking for economical solutions to these recycling/disposal challenges to promote environmental stewardship and minimize the mission’s environmental impact.

SPECIFIC TECHNICAL INFORMATION REQUESTED

The USCG Research and Development Center (RDC) requests detailed information on available biodegradable foam alternatives for river-buoy flotation. The goal of the alternative foam is to naturally degrade over a short period of time (5-10 years) that minimizes the footprint the foam may have in landfills and the environment (safely decomposes over time). The USCG would like specific information regarding each foam to include:

• Technical description of biodegradable foam, including imagery as applicable

• Description of the science of how the biodegradable foam functions in a specific application

• Description of how your foam product can be injected/inserted in a buoy interior

• Description of any safety procedures associated with the injection/insertion process

• Description of foam biodegradation timeline

• Operational temperatures and/or environmental restrictions

• Description of biodegradable foam scalability if applicable

• Assessment of the biodegradable foam TRL to include the justification of the TRL 7 or higher in the context of the TRL definition

• How your product(s) is delivered to customers (in liquid or solid form etc.)

• Storage configuration

• Pricing, total weight and cubic size of proposed item’s shipping configuration(s)

• Safety Data Sheets (if applicable)

RESPONDING TO THIS MARKET RESEARCH

It is desired that responses to this RFI address all the topics discussed in the ‘SPECIFIC TECHNICAL INFORMATION REQUESTED' section. Topics may be combined or treated individually. However, if information is not available for some of the topic areas, your submission is still of interest to the USCG.

When responding to the RFI, please include the following information:

• A one-page cover letter that provides:

o Company information to include: Point of Contact (POC) Name, POC Title, Company

Name, Location, Mailing Address, Phone Number, Website Address, Email Address, business size and socioeconomic status, Unique Entity Identifier; and a brief summary of the response indicating if supporting documentation is included.

• A detailed description of a technology that addresses the “SPECIFIC TECHNICAL INFORMATION REQUESTED” section of this RFI. Submissions of digital photographs, line drawings, illustrations, and technical data are encouraged.

• If previously awarded, provide US Government or International contracts for the technology.

• Please limit electronic responses to no more than 10 pages per foam production. Supporting documentation in the form of a glossary or attachments to the RFI response will not be counted towards the 10-page limit.

The deadline for final responses to this RFI is 12 May 2025. Responses should be sent to benedette.s.adewale@uscg.mil and Kiemisha.A.Sweetney@uscg.mil. If your email response is greater than 10 megabytes (MB), break the submission into multiple sequentially numbered emails of 10 MB or less.

RFI POSTING CATEGORIES:

North American Industry Classification System (NAICS):

• 3261 Plastics Product Manufacturing

• 326150 Urethane and Other foam products

• 325211 Plastics Material and Resin Manufacturing

• 326199 All Other Plastics Product Manufacturing

Products and Service Code (PSC):

• 8135 – Packaging and Packing Bulk Materials

• 8145 – Specialized Shipping and Storage Containers

• 9330 – Plastics Fabricated Materials

• 9390 – Miscellaneous Fabricated Nonmetallic Materials mailto:benedette.s.adewale@uscg.mil mailto:Kiemisha.A.Sweetney@uscg.mil

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION