Innovative Power Generation Technologies for Thermal Battery Replacement

Thermal batteries are used to provide primary power for a range of military and commercial devices. Thermal batteries have a long shelf life, can operate over a wide range of thermal conditions, and can start up in a fraction of a second. However, they are also sometimes unreliable and have high cost and weight. They present significant environmental hazards over their entire life cycle from production, to use, to disposal because of their use of hazardous and toxic chemicals, which also is a significant contributing factor to their high cost. In the Phase I program, Aerodyne Research, Inc (ARI) demonstrated the feasibility of a thermal battery replacement (TBR) technology based on its MICE (Miniature Internal Combustion Engine) generator that maintains the desirable characteristics of long shelf life and rapid startup, but minimizes or eliminates the negative characteristics of low energy density, high cost, occasional unreliability, and their environmentally hazardous nature. Startup was demonstrated in 20-30 ms using the same actuation source that is used in current thermal batteries. The Phase II program will develop a fully functional prototype thermal battery and demonstrate its ability to meet the power output specifications over the required range of operational temperatures.