Regenerative fuel heating apparatus and method for hypergolic combustion

摘要

An apparatus and method are disclosed for pretreatment of fuel prior to injection into the combustion chamber of a combustion device such as an internal combustion engine comprising heating of the fuel to a sufficiently high temperature to activate the fuel molecules to a critical degree enabling "hypergolic" combustion, i.e., combustion without significant ignition or combustion delay. The fuel is circulated through a vessel passing through the combustion chamber which is insulated to reduce heat loss such as to regeneratively preheat the fuel to a temperature on the order of 1000 DEG F. Regenerative heating of the fuel is alternatively combined with a catalytic treatment of the heated fuel to partially activate the fuel molecules to reduce the heating necessary to achieve hypergolic combustion.