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Alternative Fuel Sources
Published in Michael Frank Hordeski, Hydrogen & Fuel Cells: Advances in Transportation and Power, 2020
Although cryogenic fuels are difficult to handle, a self-service liquid hydrogen pumping station was built decades ago at Los Alamos National Laboratory. It was shown to be feasible for refueling vehicles over an extended period of time without any major problems. Cryogenic storage is used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Liquid hydrogen, along with liquid oxygen has been used as a rocket fuel since World War II. As a fuel for the space shuttle, almost 100 tons (400,000 gallons) are stored in the shuttle’s external tank. To prepare for a shuttle launch requires fifty tanker trucks to travel from New Orleans to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This represents a great deal of experience in shipping liquid hydrogen. Since 1965, NASA has moved over 100,000 tons of liquid hydrogen to Kennedy and Cape Canaveral by tanker truck.
Future trajectories
Published in Louis Brennan, Loizos Heracleous, Alessandra Vecchi, Above and Beyond, 2018
Louis Brennan, Loizos Heracleous, Alessandra Vecchi
It is highly likely that many environmental issues will arise in relation to space travel. There is little information currently on the effects of space exploration on the environment but it is unlikely that they will be positive. In 2003 NASA developed and tested an environmentally friendly rocket fuel that may increase operational safety and reduce costs over current solid fuels. It is unclear however if this fuel is now used for all rockets launched or if it was sidelined. In the future of the space industry a much greater amount of fuel will be used so it would be in the interest of the space industry and the environment that an environmentally friendly fuel was produced and used. Also the fact that many of the spacecraft parts are largely only used once and are generally unable to be recycled will raise environmental issues. Focusing on manufacturing products that could be used numerous times or that are recyclable at least would be a huge step forward in reducing the carbon footprint of the industry. This would also provide huge competitive advantage for the firm to develop this product first. As we have seen in recent years in the airline industry the environmental issue has become more important than ever. Customers will now be more aware of the environmental impact of going into space. In order to combat any negative attention in regard to environmental safety it is necessary that as the industry develops products that are as friendly to the environments of both earth and space as soon as possible.
Numerical Investigation of Coaxial GCH4/LOx Combustion at Supercritical Pressures
Published in Combustion Science and Technology, 2021
Sindhuja Priyadarshini, Malay K Das, Ashoke De, Rupesh Sinha
In the last few years, there has been an increasing interest in numerical modeling of combustion phenomenon in cryogenic engines due to its complex nature. The combination of liquid hydrogen (fuel) with liquid oxygen (oxidizer) has been widely utilized as rocket fuel and oxidizer for various liquid propulsion systems. Liquid hydrogen (fuel) has multiple advantages like non-toxicity, clean combustion, and the highest specific impulse. But, the low density of H2 (liq.) leads to a large vehicle, a larger tank volume, and higher aerodynamic drag. Moreover, high cost and handling difficulties of H2 (liq.) have prohibited the widespread use of H2 (liq.)-LOx combination in liquid rocket engines (LRE’s) (Sutton 2005). Lately, it has been widely recognized that hydrocarbons are the most effective alternate propellants due to their high-density characteristics resulting in minimization of the propellant tank size and overall operational cost. The lowest hydrocarbon, liquid methane, has inherent properties like higher specific impulse and better cooling capabilities. The various advantages of liquid methane over other higher hydrocarbons have made it the most competitive fuel in combination with the liquid oxygen. Due to its soft cryogenic like characteristics, the GCH4/LOx combination can easily be operated at a cryogenic arrangement.