Metal Hydride Preheater for M2 Diesel Burner

The XA2 gasoline burner is widely used by the military to meet a variety of food preparation and heating requirements in the field. Because of the trend toward an single-fuel Army vehicle fleet and away from gasoline as a general purpose fuel, a diesel/JPS fueled burner is sorely needed. A recently developed catalytic vapor generator together with the proposed metal-hydride preheater should provide all of the desired features, including safe and reliable operation with a wide range of fuels, in a simple and rugged configuration. The objective of the proposed project is to demonstrate the feasibility of this concept. In Phase I of the project, an experimental catalytic vapor generator and metal-hydride preheater would be built and tested to determine the thermal requirements and operating characteristics. The overall feasibility of the concept would be evaluated and a preliminary design of a production prototype would be prepared. The proposed preheater would provide an interim solution for burning distillate fuels in the M2 gasoline burner until a powered version is introduced, and where electric power is unavailable. It would be adaptable to recreation and construction applications that require a safe multi-fuel alternative to gasoline and propane heaters.