A METHOD FOR SCREENING AND IDENTIFICATION OF GREEN HYPERGOLIC BIPROPELLANTS

• DOI: 10.1615/intjenergeticmaterialschemprop.2018028057
• Publication Date: 2018-12-20T18:22:02Z
• Authors: Maxim Kurilov; Christoph U. Kirc...; Dominic Freudenmann; Alexander Stiefel; Helmut K. Ciezki
• Keywords: Specific impulse; Hydrazine (antidepressant)

As of now, the most widely used hypergolic fuels are hydrazine derivates with nitrogen tetroxide as oxidizer. The toxicity and carcinogenic character these substances make their handling challenging even if gelled. Therefore, there is great interest throughout propulsion community in finding alternatives for substances. However, despite a thorough literature review, clear selection criteria "green" hypergols could not be found. To tackle this issue, we developed set key requirements propellant selection. major drivers were ignitability, performance, reduced toxicity, economic factors. Then to carry out screening aimed at identifying potential oxidizers, fuels, additives. Hypergolicity was assessed by capturing ignition events simple drop test experiment high-speed camera. This setup allowed us find promising novel propellants verify our method. Not only do liquid gelled diamine hydrogen peroxide oxidizer provide 96% specific impulse monomethylhydrazine/nitrogen system, but they also feature delay times on order 15 ms.