Newsgroups: sci.space.tech
From: henry@spsystems.net (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Vodka fueled booster
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2000 04:11:24 GMT

In article <39AD7ED7.1D64E8E2@pacbell.net>,
Michael P. Walsh <mp_walsh@pacbell.net> wrote:
>The alcohol fuel might have less of a tendency to have tarry breakdown
>products than kerosene type fuels.

Depends on the type of kerosene.  It will definitely be better than what
you can buy from a garage, because the lack of multiple bonds will help a
lot (RP-1 is expensive because it's carefully refined to avoid any
significant multiply-bonded components).

One downside is that alcohol does not deposit soot on the chamber walls...
which therefore will run hotter.  (The soot layer, once established, quite
significantly reduces heat transfer.)
--
Microsoft shouldn't be broken up.       |  Henry Spencer   henry@spsystems.net
It should be shut down.  -- Phil Agre   |      (aka henry@zoo.toronto.edu)

From: "Jeff Greason" <jgreason@hughes.net>
Newsgroups: sci.space.tech
Subject: Re: Vodka fueled booster
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2000 17:32:40 -0700

Henry Spencer <henry@spsystems.net> wrote in message
news:G0G6B0.Lr8@spsystems.net...
> In article <39AD7ED7.1D64E8E2@pacbell.net>,
> Michael P. Walsh <mp_walsh@pacbell.net> wrote:
> >The alcohol fuel might have less of a tendency to have tarry breakdown
> >products than kerosene type fuels.
>
> Depends on the type of kerosene.  It will definitely be better than what
> you can buy from a garage, because the lack of multiple bonds will help a
> lot (RP-1 is expensive because it's carefully refined to avoid any
> significant multiply-bonded components).
>
> One downside is that alcohol does not deposit soot on the chamber walls...
> which therefore will run hotter.  (The soot layer, once established, quite
> significantly reduces heat transfer.)

Except that the alcohol also burns cooler -- and therefore is a net win.
(Also, the soot layer isn't a guarantee; high performance kerosene engine
experiments at higher pressure and O:F than U.S. kerosene engines
have shown minimal benefit from soot).

----------------------------------------------------------------
"Limited funds are a blessing, not         Jeff Greason
a curse.  Nothing encourages creative      President & Eng. Mgr.
thinking in quite the same way." --L. Yau  XCOR Aerospace
   <www.xcor-aerospace.com>                <jgreason@hughes.net>

From: "Jeff Greason" <jgreason@hughes.net>
Newsgroups: sci.space.tech
Subject: Re: Nitromethane/hydrogen peroxide?
Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2000 10:07:20 -0700

Ian Stirling <Inquisitor@I.am> wrote in message
news:DC8C5.71896$Ha1.1380748@news-east.usenetserver.com...
> I need to find out more about catalysts, what poisons them, and what
> temperature they melt at.
> It'd be really, really nice, if a 50% nitromethane 50% kerosene (or whatever
> mix) could be passed over a catalyst, to give a not too hot bunch of
> gasses, that H2O2 can be injected into.

Kerosene and catalysts do NOT go together.  Anything you do to substantially
heat or partially burn kerosene results in tenacious hydrocarbon deposits
which
cover the catalyst surface and eliminate the catalytic action.

----------------------------------------------------------------
"Limited funds are a blessing, not         Jeff Greason
a curse.  Nothing encourages creative      President & Eng. Mgr.
thinking in quite the same way." --L. Yau  XCOR Aerospace
   <www.xcor-aerospace.com>                <jgreason@hughes.net>