Apr 8 2019
According to a study reported in Science Advances last week, it might be feasible to synthesize rocket fuel that is considerably safer and cleaner when compared to the hypergolic fuels that are generally used at present, and yet just as effective.
In the new fuel, simple chemical “triggers” are used to release the energy of one of the most innovative, new materials, a family of porous solids called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). MOFs are formed up of an organic molecule known as a linker and clusters of metal ions.
Space stations and satellites that stay in orbit for a substantial amount of time are dependent on hypergols—extremely energetic fuels that instantly ignite when there is an oxidizer present (as there is no oxygen to promote combustion out of Earth’s atmosphere). The hypergolic fuels that are predominantly used at present rely on hydrazine, which is a dangerously unstable and extremely toxic chemical compound formed of a combination of hydrogen and nitrogen atoms.
Fuels based on hydrazine are so carcinogenic that people handling it have to get themselves ready as if they were preparing for space travel. In spite of precautions, nearly 12,000 tons of hydrazine fuels get discharged into the atmosphere each year by the aerospace industry.
This is a new, cleaner approach to making highly combustible fuels, that are not only significantly safer than those currently in use, but they also respond or combust very quickly, which is an essential quality in rocket fuel.
Tomislav Friščić, Professor, Department of Chemistry, McGill University
Friščić is the co-senior author on the paper along with Robin D. Rogers, a former McGill researcher.
Although we are still in the early stages of working with these materials in the lab, these results open up the possibility of developing a class of new, clean and highly tunable hypergolic fuels for the aerospace industry.
Hatem Titi, Study First Author, McGill University
Titi is a post-doctoral fellow who works in Friščić’s lab. Friščić aspires to commercialize this technology and will collaborate with McGill and Acsynam, an existing spin-off company from his laboratory, to achieve this.
Mishap At NASA: Hypergolic Fuel Fire
Mishap at NASA: Hypergolic fuel fire. (Video credit: McGill University)