News & Events
Awarded on Oct 1st, 2019
NSF SBIR Phase-I: Development of Safe, Energy Dense, High Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries
The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is the ability to detect and prevent fires in lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries have become the preferred mode of reusable energy storage in numerous applications ranging from mobile phones to aircraft. The low safety of current Li-ion batteries has led to a number of accidents in various applications ranging from computers to electric vehicles and aircraft. Excessive heat release from one cell can compromise the safety of the entire battery pack and the host system. By eliminating the potential for fires in each cell, the proposed technology will enable the construction of larger format cells to reduce the battery integration costs. Improved safety also will usher in development towards cells with higher energy density and open new applications that can benefit from Li-ion batteries. The project’s potential societal impacts include significant revenue, increased safety, the potential for saving lives, increased penetration of energy storage, and associated environmental impacts. This SBIR Phase I project proposes to develop an innovative technology to improve the safety of Li-ion batteries and prevent fire due to manufacturing defects, abuse, and abnormal use. In today’s batteries, these failures trigger exothermic reactions that can transition into uncontrolled thermal runaway. The resulting fires have impacted the safety of various systems ranging in scale from small (mobile phones and computers) to very large (aircraft). The objective of this effort is to develop a technology embedded in a compact sleeve that slides over the cells in a battery pack to passively detect and isolate the failing cells to prevent thermal runaway. The Phase I research consists of designing the safety sleeves for select Li-ion battery chemistries and geometries, then demonstrating their effectiveness in detecting and preventing thermal runaway in both individual cells and in battery packs. The results from Phase I research will be used to design prototype sleeves for additional battery sizes, shapes and chemistries that will be tested further in Phase II. This award reflects NSF’s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation’s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
DL: Attach here video clip of “26650 Without BSI Technology Ignition”
Awarded in September 2018
Airforce SBIR Phase-I: Safe, Large-Format Lithium-ion (Li-ion) Batteries for ICBMs
Lithium-ion batteries are being used extensively in several areas including the USAF ICBM’s due to their high energy density, reliability, and performance. The high energy density also poses unique challenges such as fire and/or explosion. Failure in a single cell can rapidly spread to the battery pack compromising the entire system and personnel safety. We propose the development of a large format Li-ion battery that is comparable to or better than the state-of-the-art cells in terms of energy density and performance, but is extremely safe against hazards like short circuits, overheat and overcharge (that can lead to thermal runaway in COTS batteries). Our technology is based on early detection of such failures and prevention of conditions that can lead to thermal runaway. This protects each individual cell in the battery pack that in turn eliminates the cell-to-cell propagation of failure. We propose to demonstrate the feasibility of proposed concepts on COTS large format Li-ion batteries in Phase I and develop custom large format batteries with our technology embedded in it in Phase II. We will deliver prototype batteries to the Air Force at the end of Phase II for further evaluation.