I'm pretty sure that Platinum / Palladium cat beds are proven to work just
fine and last forever running 98% Peroxide.
Bill
On Thursday, August 25, 2016, Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Tue, 16 Aug 2016, ignacio belieres wrote:
What do you think about Wernimonts paper saying that catalyst beds are
more reliable and cost less than liquid liquid injectors. I had read it a
long time ago and it struck me as very poor research...
I have dim memories of one or two Wernimont papers that I wasn't too
impressed by, but couldn't say offhand whether that was one of them.
Catalyzed peroxide certainly dodges some potentially-difficult problems of
ignition and combustion stability; it clearly wins on simplicity and
safety. Provided, that is, that your catalyst works consistently and
reliably -- which is often a problem, notably with the high temperatures of
90%+ peroxide. If you're willing to use permanganate solutions (or
ultra-reactive fuels like triethyl aluminum), or treat silver as a
consumable, it's easy; if you want a reusable, long-lived solid catalyst,
that's not so easy. There are things that might work adequately, but it's
*not* a solved problem.
I think uncatalyzed peroxide is a neglected approach. But making it work
well is not a solved problem either. As with any uncatalyzed liquid
oxidizer, reliable positive ignition is a must for safety, and for peroxide
it may be difficult to achieve. Do not proceed to larger-scale firings
until the ignition problem is definitely licked. Expect ignition
development tests to fail violently sometimes. Avoid using fuels miscible
with peroxide, like alcohols -- that's just asking for explosions.
Henry
