Novel Accelerator for Hydrogen Peroxide Cat Bed Start

An internal, low power accelerator for hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) catalytic decomposition reactors can provide significant size, weight and cost reductions over traditional external heaters used to elevate the initial temperature of catalytic reactors for the Airborne Laser. Electrical power consumption could potentially be reduced several orders of magnitude by utilizing catalytic Microlithr elements placed at the main catalyst bed entrance. Only a small fraction of the reactant boundary layer, near the catalyst surface, is heated to the catalyst light-off temperature resulting in rapid exothermic decomposition. Heat from decomposing hydrogen peroxide in the boundary layer would raise the local mixture temperature, stimulating rapid decomposition on adjacent unheated catalytic Microlithr elements of liquid or vapor phase H2O2. The anticipated length of the catalytic accelerator to be demonstrated in a bench scale unit during Phase I is less than 1 cm (0.4¡"). A full-scale unit would be demonstrated in Phase II based on the Phase I results. Other vehicle and satellite propulsion applications would also greatly benefit from a method to light-off a catalytic decomposition reactor (H2O2, N2O, N2H4, etc.) independent of reactant inlet and housing temperature. This system could also be retrofitted into the existing ABL propellant delivery system circuit.