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This is exciting. I chat rocket fuel with my child quite often and he is into hydrolox from water. The other big alternative is methane from atmospheric CO2, bu

by adolph 3y ago

This is exciting. I chat rocket fuel with my child quite often and he is into hydrolox from water. The other big alternative is methane from atmospheric CO2, but separating N2 could result in fuel with a bigger bang.

AlexAndScripts 3y ago
Wrong post?
- adolph 3y ago
  No, but maybe more context would help folks not reading the article: A "nitroplast" converts nitrogen from the air to a chemically useful form. Basically any energy store receives inputs and then performs controlled outputs. In the case of subterranean hydrocarbons that was solar from long ago (without prejudice against geothermogenic theories). How can we take inputs from solar, wind, water movement, geothermal or nuclear and store it optimally for a particular task? For most purposes various electrical charge or entropy change systems are sufficient. For purposes that require high energy density and high sustained release, chemical bond changes are optimal. Nitrogen is awesome for this purpose and so a biological process for storing solar energy in separated nitrogen bonds is exciting.
082349872349872 3y ago
The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process was originally developed for fertiliser, but instead we've often used it (or similar pathways) to make the rubble bounce.
- adolph 3y ago
  Yes, and this StackEx post gets a response about ammonia that quotes Clark's Ignition: https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/22758/reasons-why-liquid-anhydrous-ammonia-fuel-chosen-for-the-x-15-has-it-been-used https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/22758/reasons-why-... AFAIK, IANAExpert, Haber process is very energy intensive and centralized. It would be helpful to crack the N2 in a more distributed manner and harvest the results and maybe in a more rocket friendly molecule than ammonia, like APCP feedstock. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_perchlorate_composite_propellant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_perchlorate_composite...

by adolph 3y ago

AlexAndScripts 3y ago

Wrong post?

adolph 3y ago
No, but maybe more context would help folks not reading the article: A "nitroplast" converts nitrogen from the air to a chemically useful form. Basically any energy store receives inputs and then performs controlled outputs. In the case of subterranean hydrocarbons that was solar from long ago (without prejudice against geothermogenic theories). How can we take inputs from solar, wind, water movement, geothermal or nuclear and store it optimally for a particular task? For most purposes various electrical charge or entropy change systems are sufficient. For purposes that require high energy density and high sustained release, chemical bond changes are optimal. Nitrogen is awesome for this purpose and so a biological process for storing solar energy in separated nitrogen bonds is exciting.

082349872349872 3y ago

The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process was originally developed for fertiliser, but instead we've often used it (or similar pathways) to make the rubble bounce.

adolph 3y ago
Yes, and this StackEx post gets a response about ammonia that quotes Clark's Ignition: https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/22758/reasons-why-liquid-anhydrous-ammonia-fuel-chosen-for-the-x-15-has-it-been-used https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/22758/reasons-why-... AFAIK, IANAExpert, Haber process is very energy intensive and centralized. It would be helpful to crack the N2 in a more distributed manner and harvest the results and maybe in a more rocket friendly molecule than ammonia, like APCP feedstock. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_perchlorate_composite_propellant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_perchlorate_composite...