Environmental status and perspective for raw materials and liquid propellants

Paper number

IAC-12,C4,9,8,x13314

Author

Mr. Stéphane Henry, Herakles (Safran group), France

Coauthor

Mrs. chambras lafuente Laure, Safran SME, France

Coauthor

Mr. Christian Perut, Safran SME, France

Year

2012

Abstract

Some Raw Materials such as Ammonium Perchlorate for solid propulsion or MMH for liquid propulsion are vital regarding performance of final applications. There is only few producers in the world, these raw materials are submitted to export licences and it’s strategic for space program to warranty their availability and the independency on them. Nowadays, during all life cycle of the product, from the start of elaboration to the end of life, producers and users have to take in consideration Health, Safety and Environmental regulations on the whole and their evolvements.

A focus on the SME (Safran group) Health, Safety and Environmental and industrial policies to insure the availability on these important products has been done during the IAC 2011, and will shortly be reminded here as introduction.

This paper will be focused on future perspective for liquid propellants, based on SME skills and capabilities for new molecule synthesis and production. This enables SME to propose a stepped roadmap, based on the availability of current propellant (such as MMH), then going to less toxic propellants (such as TMTZ) with first preliminary results already obtained, and paving the way to longer term “green” propellant solutions (such as ionic liquids with new molecules). These solutions could provide long term sustainability for mono and bi-propellant motors, with minimal modifications and lower operating costs.

Abstract document

IAC-12,C4,9,8,x13314.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-12,C4,9,8,x13314.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.