>Good reasoning George. One problem. We got on this alternate fuel
>stuff by challenging GDW's universe with real universe physics. You
>then went back to GDW physics to disallow this. But if we stick to
>real world physics (or chemistry as it turns out)...
Hey, no fair. It's been two years since i did reaction chem! [he's
right, however, folks 8-) ]
>From there:
> Heat the ammonia to 800K
> It vaporizes and splits into N2 and H2
> Separate the gases with a grav plate.
> Dump the N2 into space
> Send the H2 into the power plant and jump drives
>
>The only other thing you'll need is insulating partitions dividing
>your fuel into jump-1 amounts. It wouldn't do to vaporize all your
>fuel when all you wanted was a jump-1.
What you're proposing here is just an ammonia-specific purification process.
I would bet that the easy way to do this would be not in the tank, but in a
seperate purifier, which ought to be simpler and smaller than the book ones
since it doesn't have to be able to deal with anything but ammonia.
>From a process-design standpoint, i can guarantee you that doing the above
operation in a continuous flow is easier than in one reaction chamber
[fuel tank].
Shall we treat it as a smaller purification plant? Let's say only 25% of
the normal mass due to less required flexibility?
It will probably also need more power...
Ok; revision of my previous posting with better numbers reflecting this:
For the one-hour version; 30% of fuel tank volume in purification plant,
at 0.4 mass tons and 150kCr per kl of purifier [the same as normal purif
plants.] Total vol 130% of ammonia tank vol; with the hydrogen density boost
the total volume drops to 68.5% of what the LH2 fuel would take up. For
a two-hour charge, it's 15% of tank vol in purification plant and total vol
goes to 115% of fuel vol; corresponding to 60.5% of the corresponding vol
for LH2. You still have the added cost due to the purif plant and possible
problems from the purifier failing to deal with.
*******************************************************************************
George William Herbert JOAT For Hire: Anything, Anywhere: My Price
UCB Naval Architecture undergrad: Engineering with a Bouyant Attitude :-)
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