Thermal Runaway Resistant Li ion Batteries

Energy dense Li ion batteries are being used to power many systems ranging from mobile communication devices to aircraft in both the military and private sector applications. This is because of their exceptional performance, energy efficiency, and cycle life. A key drawback, however, is their potential for failure and thermal runaway that poses unique safety challenges. Abuse, abnormal use and manufacturing defects can lead to battery cell failure and exothermic reactions, which, if not addressed early, can cause the cell to self-heat, undergo thermal runaway and catch fire. Even though battery fires occur rarely, they pose a serious threat to the safety of lives and nearby assets when they do occur. Through this SBIR project, Analytical Scientific Products LLC (ASP) is proposing the development, demonstration, and commercialization of a technology that provides passive prevention of thermal runaway and fire propagation in energy dense Lithium ion battery packs. The primary value proposition of this technology is the potential for saving lives and mission critical equipment by preventing battery fires. A second value proposition is that by improving battery safety, this technology will enable the industry shift towards energy dense chemistries and larger cells, which, in turn, will improve the battery range and performance, and lower their cost. Finally, it will also help more battery systems qualify against the stringent DoD certification standards to partially address the supply chain uncertainties.  Phase I of this effort successfully demonstrated the feasibility of our cell agnostic technology's capability to passively prevent the conditions that can lead to thermal runaway and its propagation in Li ion batteries. Phase I research provided the foundation for a more in-depth investigation in Phase II consisting of prototype construction, demonstrating the effectiveness of our technology in preventing thermal runaway and fire propagation due to various types of abuse, and evaluating its effectiveness in qualifying battery packs constructed from COTS Li ion cells against DoD certification standards. In addition to the technical effort, we will conduct additional customer interviews in Phase II to learn about the battery thermal safety needs of the military and non-DOD private sector and attempt to address those issues through our technology development. The Phase II research will result in a prototype battery pack equipped with ASP's safety technology.