Rocket fuel..... released to open atmosphere?

[mat777]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought a lot of missles ran on hydrogen azide or similar fuels which are seriously inadvisable to vent to atmosphere?

Does someone want to tell the UN this before they make Libya into a chemical wasteland?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2231902/Li...

[Eric Mc]

Rockets run off a myriad of fuels. Some are relatively benign - like liquid hyrdogen and liquid oxygen.

Others are a lot less friendly.

[hairykrishna]

Nitrogen Tetroxide - Oxide mix maybe? Would explain why it's bright orange. Do they use that in surface to air missiles as a boost stage or something?

[Eric Mc]

All rocket fuels have to contain some sort of oxygen to allow them to burn. In liquid fueled rockets, the oxygen is either mixed as liquid oxygen with the fuel in the combustion chamber or it is held as in compound as an oxide with another chemical.

[otolith]

hairykrishna said:

Nitrogen Tetroxide - Oxide mix maybe? Would explain why it's bright orange. Do they use that in surface to air missiles as a boost stage or something?

There is a photograph on this page of an exercise in cleaning up a spill of nitrogen tetroxide - looks the same to me.

http://jesskitchens.smugmug.com/History/Homing-Ove...

[otolith]

Eric Mc said:

All rocket fuels have to contain some sort of oxygen to allow them to burn.

There are other oxidisers besides oxygen - liquid fluorine and chlorine pentafluoride have been used, with ammonia or hydrazine fuel. Rocket engine / localised environmental catastrophe, I should think.

[Simpo Two]

Indeed, oxidation in the chemical sense doesn't need oxygen, it's the removal of electrons (opposite of reduction).

NB Could that brown gas be bromine?

[otolith]

OIL RIG

It looks an awful lot like that photo I posted a link to, so I think HairyKrishna guessed right.

ETA - picture of exercise with nitrogen tetroxide:



Picture from Mail:

Edited by otolith on Wednesday 14th November 12:34

[MartG]

hairykrishna said:

Nitrogen Tetroxide - Oxide mix maybe? Would explain why it's bright orange. Do they use that in surface to air missiles as a boost stage or something?

Looks exactly like an old photo of a nitrogen tetroxide leak during the development of the Lunar Module, which used it as the oxidiser with hydrazine fuel.

[Eric Mc]

I agree. I have a photograph which shows a cloud or orange haze emanating from a Lunar Module test plant.

Also, the Titan missile spewed out orange "smoke".

[otolith]

Eric Mc said:

Also, the Titan missile spewed out orange "smoke".

Tsk, had they no respect for post-nuclear armageddon air quality?