Biomass Derived Sustainable Hypergolic Rocket Propellant with Hydrogen Peroxide

Abstract

Sustainable fuels, derived from various renewable biological sources, are having a significant impact on land and marine transportation, as well as on aviation. However, in the case of the space sector, this advancement is limited. In an effort to prepare a sustainable rocket fuel (SRF) from readily available bio-resource, herein we report for the first time the valorization of a widely available biomass – coconut husk, into hypergolic composite fuel. We showed that the hypergolic reactions of various formulations of coconut husk-derived SRFs' with a green oxidizer H2O2 (95%) could be promoted with the addition of catalytic amounts of guanine-containing polymeric complexes of manganese or copper (Mn-GU or Cu-GU). It was found that the top-performing fuel formulation, with a total manganese content of just 2 wt.%, showed an impressive ignition delay time of below 50 ms. Mechanistic studies exploring structure-ignition capability relationships of coconut husk-derived SRF, Mn-GU, and Cu-GU materials revealed that the nitrate content of coconut husk-derived SRF and the metal-ligand-cooperation in the Mn-GU and Cu-GU complexes played important roles in the ignition process of our novel SRF formulations.