Propane/Nitrous oxide propellant?

[caecilliusinhorto]

After watching this video,  I wonder if Propane/Nitrous could be scaled up and used in larger rockets?
It has been used in the past on UoSAT-12, but not many rockets use it nowadays.
It's quite tame, efficient, and can autoignite so why hasn't it been used more often?

[StrandedonEarth]

I’m going to guess that the ISP is too low for orbital-class rockets, and propane can be sooty.   Also heavy, pressurized tanks unless chilled. 

[Gargamel]

And without looking at the chemistry, I would imagine LOX or just regular O2 would be far more efficient as an oxidizer than NO2.    I would guess that both the Propane and NO2 are used in place of more efficient fuels since they are available over the counter and without storage issues.    

[sgt_flyer]

Well, there was some research about this propellant combination for small satellites, but i guess they still prefer mmh/nto in terms of ISP / density, which don't have to be chilled.

could still be useful due to the low toxicity, but needing chilled propellants compared to mmh/nto adds complexity  

https://tfaws.nasa.gov/TFAWS06/Proceedings/Aerothermal-Propulsion/Papers/TFAWS06-1026_Paper_Herdy.pdf

[caecilliusinhorto]

Propane/LOX has been used, most recently by Orbex. Their rocket also has the propane tank inside the LOX tank since propane stays liquid at cryogenic temperatures. 

[sevenperforce]

Nitrous is good for hobbyists because it is self-pressurizing but it has a poor mass fraction for the same reason.

[StrandedonEarth]

2 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

Nitrous is good for hobbyists because it is self-pressurizing but it has a poor mass fraction for the same reason.

Dirt for propane, I would think