The Past and Future Perspectives of Hydrogen Peroxide as Rocket Propellants

In the field of rocket propulsion system hydrogen peroxide has been used as mono-propellant and as the oxidizer of bi-propellants. At the beginning, hydrogen peroxide was used as mono-propellant for thrusters, but later it had been replaced by hydrazine, which has better specific impulse and storability. On the other hand, to drive turbo-pumps, hydrogen peroxide is still being utilized. As the oxidizer of bi-propellants it was used until 1970`s and from 1990`s hydrogen peroxide once again got back to developer`s interest, because one of the recent development purposes of rocket propulsion system is low-cost and ecologically-clean. Until now the storability of hydrogen peroxide has been remarkably improved. The combination of Kerosene/ also shows similar accelerating performance to Kerosene/ combination because of higher propellant density and higher O/F ratio, even though the propulsion performance is not as good as the combination of Kerosene/. Moreover, its combustion products are much cleaner than Kerosene/ combination.