[AR] Re: "Direct" Hydrogen Peroxide engines
- From: David Weinshenker <daze39@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2016 21:35:42 -0700
On 08/24/2016 09:06 PM, Henry Spencer wrote:
I think uncatalyzed peroxide is a neglected approach.
What do you think of solvent/catalyst fuel mixtures
(e.g., 8% cobalt butyrate in DMAZ, described in US
patent 6,695,938 "Reduced Toxicity Hypergolic
Bipropellant Fuels" (inventor: Amos Diede, Ridgecrest CA;
assignee: US Navy)?
(And what's the general situation regarding getting whatever
license is needed to practice an invention on a private basis,
when the Navy owns the patent rights?)
This mixture was codenamed "HF-57J", and was described as
"our highest performing fuel" which "yielded smooth ignition
time after time in pulse mode operation" and "ignition delay
on the order 1-2 msec" with 96-98% H2O2.
Other metal compounds (e.g., cobalt octoate) and solvents
(e.g., dimethyl amino ethanol, diethyl amino ethanol) are
also mentioned in the examples; it is noted that commercial
cobalt octoate "usually comes dissolved in mineral spirits"
which should be "removed by vacuum evaporation prior to use".
Some years back I did some trials with copper naphthenate in
DMAZ and got rather equivocal results in droplet testing -
this suggests that one factor was that the copper naphthenate
I was using was in the form of a 25% solution in mineral spirits
(sold in the local hardware store as a wood preservative) which
I was mixing in directly as the liquid solution, when I might
have had better results by evaporating away the solvent and
dissolving the dry copper naphthenate directly in the DMAZ.
Wondering how toxic cobalt butyrate is going to be, though
(especially when partially burned and dispersed in rocket
exhaust) - "reduced toxicity" is a low bar to clear when the
comparison is to things like hydrazine and its derivatives!
-dave w
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