Bad news for nitrous oxide in rockets

[docm]

Looks like nitrous oxide is a major ozone destroyer....

Scientific American....

Laughing Gas No Laughing Matter in Atmosphere

Nitrous oxide is damaging the ozone layer and the climate.

There's a whole lot of laughing gas in the atmosphere these days. But it's no laughing matter. Nitrous oxide, or N2O, wafts up from manure and the chemical fertilizer sprayed on fields. Industry contributes as well.

Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published a new study in Science today confirming that this gas is chewing away at the ozone layer as well as contributing to climate change.

In fact, now that the world has banded together to eliminate chlorofluorocarbons and the other volatile gases previously responsible for carving out the seasonal hole in the ozone layer, laughing gas is the lead culprit, according to the researchers.
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[Shpaget]

Isn't the point of N2O to break down at high temperatures to provide extra oxygen for improved burning and extra nitrogen to increase volume of the exhaust?
That would mean that no N2O ever gets out of the nozzle and reach the atmosphere.

 

[tanstaafl76]

Wait, I thought we already saved the ozone layer in the 1990s?

 

[docm]

No combustion is 100% efficient so some would be released.

No, we didn't save the ozone in the '90's. Just part of it.

 

[rubicondsrv]

No combustion is 100% efficient so some would be released.

No, we didn't save the ozone in the '90's. Just part of it.

I suspect the contribution of the rockets would be minimal, likely amounting to less than 1000 tons/year.

that being said LOX delivers substantialy better performance, but is more costly to handle.

 

[neutrino78x]

Yeah I was under the impression that H2+O2 is the most efficient chemical rocket fuel? I'm still waiting for SSTO horizontal takeoff/landing rocketplanes

--Brian

 

[Crossover_Maniac]

This is why I hate the environmentalist movement. Eco wackos want to crap on every bit of the 200 years of progress made by mankind. Why are we letting the neo-Luddites run our nation. It's gutter trash like David Biello that will create a technologically stagnant and even deteriorating society. Let's send the environmentalist fearmongers a message that we won't be like the gullible farm animals being led around by the proverbial Chicken Little. Ignore their false claims of Armageddon, and instead, do what we do best as a species: use our minds and resources to better our society and guarantee a better future for our children.