DIAT develops indigenous fuel for supersonic Indian missiles

[thestringshredder]

India’s missile project is likely to get boost with the country advancing towards making indigenous fuel for supersonic missiles and the fuel is developed by city-based Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT).

The missile fuel is eco-friendly, made from an Indian plant and is being tested at a Chandigarh-based laboratory. The fuel has been developed by a team of DIAT researchers which was led by city-based researcher SG Kulkarni.

Kulkarni was working on development of fuel used for scramjet and ramjet engine used in missiles. He has been developing fuel for the next generation Pulse Detonation Engine (PDE), which will be used in supersonic missiles.

Speaking to dna Kulkarni said, “India has been importing missile fuel which is of high cost and is made of synthetic material, which can be hazardous. After extensive research, we have come up with a missile fuel, which is made from a plant. The new fuel, being a product from a plant, is a renewable source of energy. It is a low-cost fuel compared to the imported fuel. Once the fuel is approved at all the levels, it will be a major break through for India’s missile programme.”

At present, the new fuel is being tested at the Terminal Ballistic Research Laboratory in Chandigarh and the results are quite encouraging.

“Worldwide research is going on fuel used for PDE, which is the advanced application for low subsonic to high supersonic engines used for missiles and jet engines. We were also working on this hydrocarbon-based fuel for PDE application and the results are promising.”

DIAT’s vice-chancellor Dr Prahlada, said, “The fuel will be cheap. There has been no compromise in terms of the fuel’s compatibility with other fuels. It is comparable with world-class JP-10 fuel, which is synthetic-based fuel.”

Link - DIAT develops indigenous fuel for supersonic Indian missiles | idrw.org