Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🚀 Using two fuels 🚀 A two-part fuel
bipropellant

bipropellant

8.2
A rocket system that keeps fuel and an oxidizer apart until they burn
  • noun
  • /ˌbaɪˈprɒpələnt/
  • Specialized
: sistema de bipropelente
  • Scientists are researching bipropellant technologies to create rockets that are safer and more reliable for future missions.

Examples

  • One of the engineering company's current projects is designing a bipropellant gel rocket engine that uses an axial pintle to control the throat area of the engine and thus the motor thrust.

    Academic text (2002)

  • The engineers developed a new bipropellant system that combines liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for enhanced efficiency in the rocket.

  • For his project, he proposed an innovative bipropellant configuration that could vastly improve fuel efficiency in space travel.

Surface Forms

bipropellant singular
bipropellants plural

Morphology

bipropellant = propellant (transparent) = bi + propellant

The prefix 'bi-' clearly indicates two, and the meaning of 'bipropellant' as a system using two propellants is directly derived from this.

Etymology

Bipropellant comes from bi- 'two' (like bicycle) and propel 'to push forward' (like propeller). So a bipropellant system is a rocket fuel system that uses two separate propellants kept apart until use, which is why the noun means that today.