MONOLITHIC CATALYST BEDS FOR HYDRAZINE REACTORS FINAL REPORT November 12, 1969, through February 28, 973

摘要

Rocket Research Corporation (RRC), under NASA Contract NAS 7-755, has evaluated a monolithic catalyst bed for monopropellant hydrazine decomposition. The program involved the evaluation of a new hydrazine catalyst concept wherein open-celled foamed materials are used as supports for the active catalysts. A high-surface-area material is deposited upon the open-celled foamed material and is then coated with an active metal to provide a spontaneous catalyst. Only a fraction of the amount of expensive active metal used in currently available catalysts is needed to promote monolithic catalyst.nNumerous parameters were evaluated during the program, and the importance of additional parameters became obvious only while the program was in progress. A demonstration firing at the end of the initial contract (using a 2.2-Newton (N) (0.5-lbf) reactor) successfully accumulated 7,700 seconds of firing time and 16 ambient temperature starts without degradation. Results obtained during the initial contract were reported in an interim report entitled Monolithic Catalyst Beds for Hydrazine Reactors 71-R-259, and submitted to NASA Ames Research Center for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on May 1,1971. A summary of results obtained during this initial contract is also included herein. The results were encouraging, and a second contract increment was funded and conducted between July 27, 1971, and February 28, 1973, to resolve remaining problem areas discovered during the initial contract and to improve durability of the monolithic catalyst.