Solid fuel The most common examples of solid fuels are: Wood: Includes firewood, charcoal, woodchips, pellets, sawdust, and so on. Charcoal: Produced by heating wood in the absence of oxygen. Biomass: Natural plant materials, such as wheat, straw and other fibrous material.

Solid fuel use is defined as the household combustion of coal or biomass (such as dung, charcoal, wood, or crop residues). Worldwide, approximately 50% of all households and 90% of rural households utilize solid fuels for cooking or heating.

‘ Solid fuel – coal or anthracite – has been a comparatively cheap source of household heat for some years. But now, with the costs of electricity and gas rising sharply, it is cheaper than ever.

Disadvantages of solid fuels :

• Their ash content is high.
• They burn with clinker formation.
• They combustion operations cannot be controlled easily.
• Their cost of handling is high.
• Their large proportion of heat is wasted during combustion.
• Their thermal efficiency is low.

Kerosene is a hydrocarbon liquid which is highly combustible. Also known as lamp oil it is used as fuel in industry as well as households.

Solid fuel is in various form as solids which is burnt to release energy. some common form of solid fuels are wood, charcoal,coal etc. Among these coal has largest calorific value.

When hydrogen comes in contact with air, it reacts explosively. Hydrogen needs to be compressed at higher pressures. As hydrogen is combustible and has a storage problem, transportation is also a problem for hydrogen gas. Therefore, though hydrogen gas has the highest calorific value, it cannot be used as a fuel.

The solid fuel is actually powdered aluminum — a form similar to the foil wraps in your kitchen — mixed with oxygen provided by a chemical called ammonium perchlorate.

Solid rockets use propellant in the solid phase, liquid fuel rockets use propellant in the liquid phase, gas fuel rockets use propellant in the gas phase, and hybrid rockets use a combination of solid and liquid or gaseous propellants.

While powerful, solid motors can’t be turned off once ignited. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 uses only liquid propellants, rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen, and the result, the astronauts said, was a relatively fluid flight.

With the launch of its first reusable rocket in recent years, it is probable that this will help SpaceX to further bring down rocket launch costs. A reusable rocket adds economies of scale to operations. Thus, the more times a rocket is reused, the cheaper its launch costs become.

The cost for a single load of fuel for the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, presumably a more austere model than the one that will be used for space tourism in the near future, is between $200,000 and $300,000.

Hybrid rocket fuels are considered a safer alternative to traditional solid and liquid fuel systems. In hybrids, the thrust chamber contains only solid fuel. This reduces the potential for devastating fires and explosions. The oxidizer is ignited as it is forced over the fuel surface.

Hydrogen. Many early rocket theorists believed that hydrogen would be a marvelous propellant, since it gives the highest specific impulse. It is also considered the cleanest when oxidized with oxygen because the only by-product is water.

It Uses Methane. While on the subject of the engine, another noteworthy fact is that the Raptors use methane as their primary fuel source. Historically, the two rocket fuels of choice are kerosene (also known as RP-1) and hydrogen. For example, the Saturn V used kerosene, and the Space Shuttle used hydrogen.

Falcon 9 is a partially reusable two-stage-to-orbit medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured by SpaceX in the United States. Both the first and second stages are powered by SpaceX Merlin engines, using cryogenic liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1) as propellants.

SpaceX Merlin

At full power, the 9 engines consumed 3,200 lbs of fuel and liquid oxygen per second, and generated almost 850,000 pounds of thrust.

4.9 miles per second