Abstract
This paper presents a theoretical NASA Chemical Equilibrium with Applications (CEA)-based screening of selected oxygenated fuels for liquid-oxygen rocket propulsion. The purpose is not experimental validation or complete engine design, but early-stage comparison of fuel-bound oxygen effects under identical ideal thermochemical assumptions. RP-1 was compared with dimethyl ether, ethanol, methanol, acetic acid, and formic acid using oxidizer-to-fuel-ratio sweeps, chamber-pressure sensitivity, nozzle-expansion-ratio sensitivity, equilibrium-to-frozen comparison, and major exit-species assessment. The ideal performance results were then combined with performance retention, thermal severity, oxygenation penalty, density impulse, and a simplified total propellant-volume metric. At Pc = 20 bar and Ae/At = 40, the best tested or refined ideal equivalent exhaust velocities were 3297.4 m/s for RP-1, 3290.5 m/s for dimethyl ether, 3234.3 m/s for ethanol, 3158.6 m/s for methanol, 2851.4 m/s for acetic acid, and 2329.4 m/s for formic acid. Dimethyl ether retained 99.8% of RP-1 ideal performance but has storage and handling penalties. Ethanol retained 98.1% and appears to be the most practical moderate-penalty oxygenated candidate in this fuel set. The acid fuels are useful boundary cases, but are not attractive primary high-performance rocket fuels under the present assumptions. The results show that fuel-bound oxygen, ideal performance, oxidizer requirement, density, and handling constraints must be considered together during preliminary LOX fuel screening.