Research on innovative high performance and low-cost solid rocket fuel

The fuel for space access rockets represents a significant investment for space programmes as the energy required to propel the vehicles beyond our gravitational sphere is immense. Dr Yasuhiro Morita, from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and his team have been developing new, high performance, low-cost solid rocket fuels that could revolutionise the industry. Morita's ground-breaking solid fuel relies on the addition of a thermoplastic resin, and the process he has developed can be modified to allow more efficient manufacturing with smaller scale facilities.

The features of the technology of extracting ammonium perchlorate product of the disposal of solid rocket fuel

In the process of disposal of solid propellant (SP) from the curb of engines formed polymer matrix with the size of the fragments here 7×4×2–15×4×2 mm, which finds use as energy additive in the composition of emulsion explosives. The polymeric matrix includes: a binder, an oxidizer (ammonium perchlorate), energy supplements (HMX, aluminum) and technological additives. One of the most efficient ways to use polymer matrix is the production of a valuable energy component of ammonium perchlorate, HMX. The aim of this work is to establish the patterns and determination of parameters of the deletion of ammonium perchlorate from the products of recycling of solid propellant. To remove ammonium perchlorate from the polymer matrix, the polymer matrix samples were treated with water at a temperature of 20 °C and stirring for 1–4 hours. The target protein was removed by crystallization in the temperature range 30 °C to 8 °C. the resulting solid phase crystals of ammonium perchlorate was filtered, dried, weighed. According to the results of the experiments obtained for the constants and the General kinetic equation that describes the leaching process of ammonium perchlorate with a polymeric matrix of the solid propellant at a temperature of 20 °C. Microscopic analysis suggests that the results obtained from the polymeric matrix of the solid rocket fuel ammonium perchlorate is a crystal of irregular shape with particle sizes predominantly between 100 and 600 µm, the recovery rate of the target product amounted to 76.8 per cent with a basic substance content of 98,5 %. The extracted product after modification can be used in composite formulations as an oxidizing agent, or as raw material for conversion processing of the latter in the potassium perchlorate, a component of non-electric initiation systems. The data obtained after detailed techno-economic analysis can be considered as a basis for the creation of experimental-industrial production extraction of water-soluble component of solid propellant ammonium perchlorate.