What could be the best chemical catalyst diluted in a fuel to use in a liquid rocket motor for 90% of H2O2? The idea is to avoid a big catalytic reactor before the combustion chamber of the rocket motor and to provide decomposition directly inside the combustion chamber.
There could be CuCl2 as an option, but its concentration should be around 10% of hydrogen peroxide by mass which doesn't make it feasible for rocket applications.
Are there any publications in this area indicating possible species and concentrations of H2O2 chemical catalysts?
Take a look at this paper: http://mtc-m21b.sid.inpe.br/col/sid.inpe.br/mtc-m21b/2017/08.10.13.08/doc/William%20Muller%20Meyer.pdf
Thanks! There is still too much of catalyst (~9%). Is there better solution?
Did you consider an alternative approach:
Starting the decomposition per a catalytic layer in the (H2O2) injection tubing/nozzles, relying on further thermal decomposition once the temperature has risen beyond the critical point? This would avoid the reaction chamber as well as the some-% "penalty" of dissolved catalyst.
Hello Olexiy Shynkarenko ,
Have you looked in the following book,
John D. Clark; Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants; Rutgers University Press Classics; 2017 ( originally published in 1972); 197 pp., see in particular pp. 59-64, Chapter 5 - Peroxide - Always a Bridesmaid.
Clark discusses the use of H2O2 in quite a few places in this book including its use as monopropellant, see pp. 120-123, as already mentioned by U. Dreher .
In the V2 rocket, the Germans, in order to drive their turbopumps for the alcohol and LOX, used a 126 liter tank of hydrogen peroxide and a 9 liter tank of potassium permanganate in water as the catalyst, which when mixed together created the steam to drive the pumps; obviously the catalyst and the H2O2 had to be kept separate. You probably already knew the aforementioned application, but I thought I would still mention it anyway.
I also wanted to ask you how premixing the catalyst with the H2O2 can be done without decomposition taking place immediately?
Regards,
Tom Cuff
- Badges
- Science topic