Accelerator for Hydrogen Peroxide Cat Bed Start

A novel accelerator system will be developed to enhance oxygen generation from a hydrogen-peroxide catalytic bed, for the purpose of improving start-up performance and reducing system response time. The system will rapidly increase system temperature using chemical stimulation of the hydrogen peroxide, as opposed to power-consuming electrical heaters currently in use. This system design concept will be evaluated experimentally, with possible supplemental stimulation by ultraviolet and/or acoustic sources. The chemical stimulation will be induced by a network of channels containing highly reactive agents, which will be selected based on laboratory tests of their reactivity with hydrogen peroxide. The accelerator's supply channels will be designed to uniformly release the chemical into the hydrogen peroxide stream during system startup period. The channels will be isolated from the catalytic bed system at all other times, to prevent interference with the steady-state operation of the catalytic bed and chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL) system it supplies. The improvement to hydrogen peroxide breakdown rates will be quantified and reported, and the concept will be prepared for scaling to an actual catalytic bed system.