Rocket engine propulsion system
AssigneeFlorida Turbine Technologies, Inc.
InventorAlex Pinera
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A rocket propulsion system having a liquid fuel tank and a liquid oxidizer tank, where a liquid inert gas tank supplies liquid inert gas to a liquid inert gas pump driven by a turbine of the engine to pressurize the liquid inert gas, which is passed through a heat exchanger around the nozzle to vaporize the inert gas, that is then used to pressurize the liquid oxidizer tank so that a liquid oxidizer pump is not needed, or to pressurize both the liquid oxidizer tank and the liquid fuel tank so that a liquid oxidizer pump and a liquid fuel pump are not needed in the rocket engine.
Claims11
A rocket propulsion system comprising:
- a liquid fuel tank;
- a liquid oxidizer tank;
- a main combustion chamber and a nozzle;
- a heat exchanger associated with the main combustion chamber or the nozzle;
- a liquid inert gas tank;
- a liquid inert gas pump having an inlet connected to the inert gas tank and an outlet connected to the heat exchanger;
- the heat exchanger having an outlet connected to the oxidizer tank;
- a turbine connected to drive the liquid inert gas pump;
- and,
- the liquid inert gas pump pressurizing the liquid inert gas and the heat exchanger vaporizing the liquid inert gas and increasing the pressure of the oxidizer in the oxidizer tank.
A process for operating a rocket propulsion system, the rocket propulsion system including a liquid fuel tank and a liquid oxidizer tank, a main combustion chamber connected to a nozzle, a heat exchanger associated with the nozzle or the main combustion chamber, the process comprising the steps of:
- passing a liquid fuel through the heat exchanger to vaporize the liquid fuel;
- passing a liquid oxidizer through the heat exchanger to vaporize the liquid oxidizer;
- passing the vaporized fuel and oxidizer into the main combustion chamber;
- pressurizing a liquid inert gas;
- passing the liquid inert gas through the heat exchanger to vaporize the liquid inert gas;
- and,
- passing the vaporized inert gas into the liquid oxidizer tank to pressurize the liquid oxidizer for delivery to the main combustion chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.