Biofuel Rocket Engine Gets Test Run

From Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel:

The U.S. aerospace industry is officially onboard the biofuel bandwagon, with the test fire of a small rocket engine that burns commercially available biodiesel. California-based Flometrics did the honors and discovered the Rocketdyne LR-101 engine produced nearly the same amount of thrust burning biodiesel as it did chugging through a kerosene-based conventional rocket fuel. "We found it was very comparable," said company chief executive Steve Harrington. Flometrics is now assembling components for an actual launch, targeted for later this month. Harrington is hoping the demonstration will spark interest in renewable fuels from NASA and the Air Force.

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