Apparatus and method for compressive heating of fuel to achieve hypergolic combustion

摘要

A method and apparatus are disclosed for rapidly heating vaporized fuel to elevated temperatures prior to its injection into a combustion chamber to achieve negligible ignition delay and substantially instantaneous completion of the combustion process. Heating of the fuel is initiated by preheating each quantity of fuel with heat extracted from the engine exhaust, and the preheated fuel is vaporized and subsequently rapidly heated to a high temperature by being adiabatically compressed immediately prior to injection into the combustion chamber. The fuel activation effect of compressive heating is alternatively augmented by contact of the fuel with a catalytic material, to achieve hypergolic combustion by a combination of catalysis and heating.