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least polluting rocket fuel
Are there any rocket fuels -- existing or potential -- that are less
polluting than kerosene or hydrogen? If so, are any of them economically feasible? |
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least polluting rocket fuel
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least polluting rocket fuel
cold gas (nitrogen) is a non polluting but its Isp is probably not what you
are looking for. Why do you think that hydorgen is polluting? I would think that the post combustion product was H2O. wrote in message oups.com... Are there any rocket fuels -- existing or potential -- that are less polluting than kerosene or hydrogen? If so, are any of them economically feasible? |
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least polluting rocket fuel
wrote in message oups.com... Are there any rocket fuels -- existing or potential -- that are less polluting than kerosene or hydrogen? If so, are any of them economically feasible? Um, hydrogen isn't polluting. Rockets burning pure H2 and O2 generate water. |
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least polluting rocket fuel
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least polluting rocket fuel
I think it'd be hard to beat the hydrogen/oxygen propellant
combination. The exhaust is water. Mike Miller |
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least polluting rocket fuel
Yes, bioethanol and liquid oxygen. And yes, pretty feasible. You might
also be able to use some suitable vegetable oils to replace kerosene with minimal modification to the engines. Doing it that way, you'd get minimal pollution (a bit of nitrates produced during the burn, but not too bad.) Hydrogen is only less polluting if you make it in a non polluting way, but hydrogen is actually commercially manufactured from methane; is energy intensive and probably generates more CO2 than a rocket burning kerosene would. (Manufacturing hydrogen from electrolysis of water using nuclear power, in principle is clean, but is never done on a large scale; the energy required is prohibitive.) |
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least polluting rocket fuel
Cruithne3753 wrote:
wrote: Are there any rocket fuels -- existing or potential -- that are less polluting than kerosene or hydrogen? If so, are any of them economically feasible? Hydrogen + oxygen = water vapour. Can't get any less polluting than that. Actually water doesn't naturally tend to rise high in the stratosphere, so its release there by rockets or aircraft can be considered pollution, although not, in my opinion, of a very serious kind. I believe it freezes and fairly soon falls out. A rocket with liquid air for propellant, powered by a laser on the ground, would be a little cleaner than an oxyhydrogen rocket. Isp probably would be much inferior, although in principle one could put a lot of laser power into heating a low mass flow rate of air from the rocket's tanks, and get a crazy chamber temperature in the middle of the chamber but not at the walls. --- Graham Cowan, former hydrogen fan Boron fire good. http://tinyurl.com/4xt8g |
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