Green Propellant Development through SBIR

The paper describes efforts made over the past decade to develop a hypergolic "green" fuel (HGF).  funded through the US Small business innovative research ( SBIR) program.  Successful development of HGF offers several improvements for operation and maintenance of commercial propulsion systems-in terms of reduced toxicity, improved handling and potentially smaller launch vehicles as compared with conventional fuels. including hydrazine and its derivatives (MMH and UDMH).  These conventional bipropellants have undesirable toxic characteristics which pose long-term health and environmental risks and greatly increase operating and maintenance costs of civilian and satellite flight systems. 

HGF development utilized a low-cost screening technology to measure the chemical delay time (CDT) of candidate formulations to effectively maximize hypergolicity in a shirtsleeve environment. The process allows researchers to optimize both physical and chemical properties economically without the dangers associated with conventional engine tests.  Following formulation optimization, the team successfully scaled up to 5lbf thruster testing.