A projectile fuel system, comprising:
- a. a housing;
- b. a fuel tank with liquid fuel in the housing;
- c. an oxidizer tank with a liquid oxygen in the housing;
- d. a first turbine in the housing connected to an oxidizer pump, the oxidizer pump for pumping the liquid oxygen from the oxidizer tank and forming a first supercritical carbon dioxide exhaust, the first turbine configured to receive a first portion of heated carbon dioxide;
- e. a second turbine in the housing connected to a fuel pump, the fuel pump for pumping liquid fuel from the fuel tank and forming a second supercritical carbon dioxide exhaust, the second turbine configured to receive a second portion of heated supercritical carbon dioxide;
- f. a control valve to proportion the first portion of heated supercritical carbon dioxide and the second portion of heated supercritical carbon dioxide to each of the first turbine and the second turbine, adjust a total flow rate both of the first portion of heated supercritical carbon dioxide and the second portion of heated supercritical carbon dioxide and adjust the total flow of the supercritical carbon dioxide from a jacket;
- g. a combining device for merging the first carbon dioxide exhaust with the second supercritical carbon dioxide exhaust forming a first heated supercritical carbon dioxide;
- h. an oxidizer heat exchanger in the housing for receiving:
- (i) the liquid oxygen from the oxidizer pump;
- and
- (ii) the first heated supercritical carbon dioxide from the combining device and forming a heated oxygen and a second heated supercritical carbon dioxide;
- i. a fuel heat exchanger in the housing for receiving:
- (i) the liquid fuel from the fuel pump;
- and
- (ii) the second heated supercritical carbon dioxide from the oxidizer heat exchanger forming a heated liquid fuel and a cooled heated supercritical carbon dioxide;
- j. the jacket mounted around a thrust chamber, the jacket and thrust chamber partially extending from the housing, forming a cooling chamber between the jacket and thrust chamber;
- k. a supercritical carbon dioxide tank in the housing containing the supercritical carbon dioxide and configured to receive cooled second heated supercritical carbon dioxide from the fuel heat exchanger;
- l. a supercritical carbon dioxide feed pump mounted in the housing for pumping supercritical carbon dioxide to the cooling chamber;
- m. a controller comprising a processor in communication with computer readable media, the processor in communication with the control valve, wherein the computer readable media has computer instructions to instruct the processor to control proportioning of the first portion of heated supercritical carbon dioxide and the second portion of heated supercritical carbon dioxide to each of the first turbine and the second turbine, adjust total flow rate both of the first portion of heated supercritical carbon dioxide and the second portion of heated supercritical carbon dioxide and adjust the total flow of supercritical carbon dioxide from the jacket;
- and wherein the thrust chamber receives the heated liquid fuel and the heated oxygen to generate a high velocity exhaust to move the projectile;
- and wherein supercritical carbon dioxide increases in temperature as the supercritical carbon dioxide removes heat from a wall of the thrust chamber forming the heated carbon dioxide.