Jones- Cryogenic processing of solid rocket propellants—oxidizer, fuel and rubber glue or matrix does make a lot of sense.
Being cryogenic, its SAFE. It affords an efficient chemical reaction and release of maximum energy, being very well mixed in a stoichiometric proportion. And it does not entail a batch production of solid fuel in limited volumes. Bob Cook From: Jones Beene<mailto:jone...@pacbell.net> Sent: Monday, June 19, 2017 1:48 PM To: vortex-l@eskimo.com<mailto:vortex-l@eskimo.com> Subject: Re: [Vo]:"Type A nickel" ? bobcook39...@hotmail.com wrote: > > An interesting alternative would be to use liquid H... This type of experiment should have been attempted ... but surprisingly - nothing relevant turns up in a quick search. Can a cryogenic cold catalyst like Pd-Ag or Ni-Ag pass protons as ions if they were in an intense magnetic field ? There could be an overlooked commercial market. For instance, rocket propellant. Think about this. Imagine a spacecraft where only LH is carried as fuel, no LOX or other oxidizer. The thrust may be cold, but who cares? You have saved lots of fuel weight by ditching the oxidizer - but how much thrust do you get by pumping LH through a proton conducting catalyst membrane like palladium or equivalent? First off, everything can be superconducting - since you have "free cryogenics" by virtue of using the LH as the fuel. Palladium hydride is superconducting. (I do not know about Pd-Ag or Ni-Ag hydrides, as far as being superconductive. If protons could be released on the "other side of a membrane" [doubtful] and that other side represents the exhaust of a rocket motor - then, voila... We have a case for very cold ion acceleration in an intense but "free" magnetic field using no oxidizer. Alternatively, if deuterium was used and a few PPM were fused as it is passing through, then you have warm or hot thrust. Here are some interesting facts on LH with the associated gaps of knowledge. 1. Molecular hydrogen, despite its extraordinarily large bond dissociation energy of 436 kJ/mol, readily dissociates in the presence of palladium at temperatures as low as 37 K. Not sure what happens closer to 0 K. 2. Hydrogen atoms migrate from hole-to-hole through the matrix of palladium very rapidly with minimal applied pressure. The speed of this migration is incredible due to the mobility of protons. 3. The hydrogen density is greater in Pd than than in liquid hydrogen and the palladium membrane would appear to be a "diode" in this case. 4. Palladium hydride is superconducting. Although molecular hydrogen is diamagnetic, atomic hydrogen has a self-field of 12.5 Tesla due to the electron. This should create a huge acceleration gradient since the hydride is atomic in transit. 5. Normally, H2 is released after passing through a membrane by the reverse process of hydrogen absorption and there is no net gain or loss even though the matrix would normally heat up from additional pressure. 6. However, in a very large applied magnetic field, say 10 Tesla what happens ? ... will protons be accelerated away from the membrane as ions... as they emerge on the other side, or as molecular ions or as molecules? Can a charged grid be used to boost acceleration? 7. If the LH enters on one side of a membrane and emerges as very cold protons along magnetic field lines - the thrust could be very large - much larger than combustion. Plus the lower weight. Sure, we can agree that this scenario is most unlikely since it violates the Laws of Thermodynamics (unless ultra-cold fusion occurs) but the actual testing of the concept seems never to have been done... hmmm... it is a safe bet that the large vapor trail in Oz is hydrogen rich....
