GRASP- Overview
GRASP at a glance GRASP Green Advanced Space Propulsion Facts and numbers GRASP constitutes the first European wide, comprehensive effort to investigate Green Propellants GRASP is funded by the EC in the FP7 program GRASP incorporates 12 entities from 7 European countries GRASP consortium consists of industry, SME, universities, and research institutes GRASP beneficiaries come from Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Poland, United Kingdom GRASP will run from the 01.12.2008 to 01.12.2011 GRASP shall provide context and reference of past and present research of green propellants and provide the basis for a road map for future efforts
GRASP at a glance
GRASP Motivation Currently used propellants for space application are highly toxic and carcinogenic Propellant related costs (procurement, handling etc.) during development and qualification can top 1/3 of the total cost (f(thrust)) High (re-)concurrent cost and low potential for cost reduction Reduced level of innovation (keep the status quo) Increasing awareness of risk potential with regard to the human operators and environment led to more and more restrictive use further increase in cost expected difficult market environment (REACH/ECHA) results in significantly reduced planning reliability for industry
GRASP Goals GRASP goals Establishment of a status-quo of green propellants Theoretical investigation of green propellants Experimental investigation of green propellants on component as well as on system level Creation of knowledge to promote/enable further investigation by the research community enable industry to make informed decision Safer working environment Lower environmental impact Reduction of costs Strengthening European competitiveness Creation of new high level working jobs Improved propulsion performance Increased mission applicability Promoting and supporting new space mission Education of students and young professionals Increasing level of innovation Increased human presence in space etc.
GRASP Vision Today Tomorrow Video was kindly provided by the Swedish Defense Research Agency FOI
GRASP methodology Starting from an additional number of 92 (plus derivatives) green propellant candidates, the GRASP project has four built in assessments. Each assessment investigates different properties in order to filter out those propellants which are considered not to be promising candidates:
Initial propellant candidates (partial) Aniline 3 3' diaminopropylamine ethylammonium nitrate ethylenoxide ethyl nitrate furfuryl alcohol monomethylamine Tetranitromethane Trimethylaluminium 2,4 xylidine polynitrogens (eg N 3 ) 2,5 dimethyltetrazole allyl dipropenylamine JP 1 JP 3 RJ 5 AFRL4 Tri prop 2 ynyl amine Bicyclopropylidene 3 prop 2 ynyloxy propyne tris(azidomethyl)amine C stoff mixed oxides of nitrogen nitromethane nitroglycerine propane JP 10 heptane propyne triethylamine diethylenetriamine 1,3 diaminopropane 1,2 diaminocyclohexane ethane cyclopropane ethyl methyl ether dibutyl ether propadiene ethanolamine acetaldehyde ammonia ammonium nitrate butane diethylene glycol dimethyl ether dimethylether d Limonene DMAZ (and CINCH) dimethylamine ethanol ethylene ethylenediamine HTPB hydrogen peroxide 1,5 hexadiyne ionic liquids (ADN, HAN, HNF) iso octane isopropyl alcohol kerosene (Jet A 1, JP 4, JP 5, RP 1) methane methanol methylammonium nitrate nitrous oxide N propyl nitrate octane oxygen (LOX) pentane PMMA polyethylene propane propyl amine propyl ether propylene silanes tetrahydrofuran tetramethylethylenediamine toluene triethylaluminium turpentine
Initial propellant candidates (partial) Data collection (based on ~250 literature sources)
1 st Assessment output A large number of the propellant candidates have significant lower toxicity level than the presently utilized propellants and can be handled with minimal personnel protection Oral [LD50] [mg/kg] Inhalation [LC50] [ppm/4h] Dermal [LD50] [mg/kg] Hydrazine 60 330 91 MMH 32 34 95 UDMH 132 252 1060 Ethanol 7060 46500 20000 Green Monopropellants show in many cases (e.g. ionic liquids) significant higher specific impulse and inpulse density than comparable toxic propellants Green bipropellants have a specific impulse roughly 2 6% less than comparable toxic propellant (combinations) but up to 10% higher impulse density NOTE: the above statements are based on identical operational conditions (p c, ε) A large number of green propellant candidates have procurement costs a magnitude lower than the toxic propellants In many cases, the knowledge background and TRL is low. Some of the green propellant candidates however have already a strong background and are even flight proven (e.g. H2O2)
1 st Assessment output 27 most promising green propellant candidates were flagged for further investigation. All of them show a significant reduction in toxicity, good performance potential, strong background in storage and handling, and in some cases a large reduction in procurement cost. 11 of those 27 candidates are scheduled to be experimentally investigated (bold letters) ADN based Dibutyl ether HNF based 30-50% w/wo fuel Diethylenetriamine HAN 80-90% w/wo fuel Heptane HAN-ADN-HNF-AN aqueous mixture Triethylamine Ammonium nitrate based Butane Hydrogen peroxide Dimethylether Nitrous oxide d-limonene Ethanol Dipentene Isopropyl alcohol Octane Kerosene (Jet-A1) Propyl ether Turpentine Tetramethylethylenediamine Propyl amine HDPE Methane HTPB (Penta-) silanes PMMA
Experimental assessment : Propellants Those propellants which have been identified as promising are experimentally investigated. The activities focus on the fundamental investigation of properties of propellants and catalysts for example by: thermodynamic characterization material compatibility testing COTS investigation shock sensitivity batch/dynamic reactors The GRASP consortium has a multitude of facilities and measurement techniques on hand and is using them to their full extent
Review of GRASP efforts and achievements In the 2 ½ years GRASP has been running the following major achievements have been accomplished: Establishment of a data base of more than 100 potential propellants with significantly reduced toxicity. This data base will be made available to the community Theoretical assessment of all the green propellant candidates Experimental assessment of a selection of propellant candidates (~30)
Review of GRASP efforts and achievements In the 2 ½ years GRASP has been running the following major achievements have been accomplished: Presently 6 propellants are integrated in 8 different propulsion system and their performance is being experimentally evaluated. Investigated propellants are hydrogen peroxide, ethanol, kerosene, ADN, turpentine, dipentene, HDPE The investigated system include monopropellant, bipropellant and hybrid thruster concepts in a thrust range from 1 to 500 N H2O2 Supply Catalyst chamber Fuel Supply Injector plate (inlay) N2 Supply Combustion chamber Gas cooling Outer jacket
Review of GRASP efforts and achievements Catalyst development: Intensive R&D has led over the past years to very high performance Catalysts. Some examples of those results are: Performance: T Transition times: <1 s Thrust response times: 0.3 0.5 s Efficiencies: >95% Pressure drop: ~100 mbar Lifetime: in excess of 140 thermal cycles (always cold start) total load equivalent to ones from existing systems Catalyst storage at air for 2 years without detrimental impact was shown Effect of alternative HTP stabilizers on catalyst performance was assessed Study of long term storage was prepared
Review of GRASP efforts and achievements Propulsion system development: Thruster hardware (plus subcomponents) was developed for some of the most promising green propellant candidates including: 1 N Bipropellant: HTP/Kerosene 20 N Monopropellant: HTP 20 N Monopropellant: ADN (FLP 106) 200 N Bipropellant: HTP/Kerosene/Turpentine/Dipentene 200 N Hybrid: HTP/HDPE Those battleship propulsion systems shall provide information with regard to o Thrust range verification o Performance (specific impulse) o Throttling capabilities o MIB capability o Preliminary lifetime assessment
Propulsion testing University of Naples, Italy Hybrid, 200 N, H2O2/HDPE Univ. of Southampton, UK Monopropellant, 20N, H2O2 Fotec, Austria Bipropellant, 1 N, H2O2/Kerosene DELTACAT Ltd. and Univ. of Southampton, UK Bipropellant, 300N, H2O2/Turpentine
Summary GRASP has established a large data base with regard to green propellants including material properties, toxicity assessment, and potential applications (market analysis). This data base will be available to the public. Significant progress in many areas such as simulations,catalyst development, propulsion system developments etc. have been achieved. Non toxic monopropellants have been identified which provide significant increase in thruster performance. Very promising non toxic bipropellants have been identified. GRASP has build up a knowledge base with which industry can make informed decisicions how to embarge on a transition towards non toxic propellants.