Towards New Hypergolic Hydrogen Peroxide-Based Bipropellants

Hydrogen peroxide in combination with hydrocarbons, alcohols, or amines can be considered an attractive solution for the development of storable bipropellant candidates replacing hydrazine. The non-hypergolic nature of these couples imposes the use of a mechanism of ignition, though. This raises concerns of reliability when multiple firings are planned. A modified fuel composition, demonstrating hypergolic ignition capability with hydrogen peroxide, has been recently tested at the SPLab of Politecnico di Milano. The fuel is based on ethanolamine, ethanol and a copper-based additive. The experimental test campaign has demonstrated the efficacy of the ignition process, granting an ignition delay time down to 34 ms. A parametric analysis on additive and fuel combination will be presented.