By ESS news
The global transition to sustainable energy systems requires battery energy storage technologies that provide both high performance and robust safety. Although lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) currently dominate deployment, their safety limitations—particularly thermal flooding caused by flammable liquid electrolytes—remain a concern.
Researchers from the University of Newcastle in the UK, in collaboration with the Fire Service Academy in Poland, have conducted a comprehensive comparison of three key technologies: conventional lithium-ion, emerging sodium-ion (SIB) and solid state batteries (SSB). They argue that while resistance to thermal flooding is important, meaningful cross-chemical comparisons require a holistic, multi-feature safety framework tailored to different deployment scenarios.
Their assessment evaluates initiation resistance, abuse tolerance, failure severity (including maximum temperature, heat release and heating rate), gas hazards (volume, flammability, toxicity), propagation risk and application-specific limitations, such as the difference between confined maritime transport and network storage systems equipped with active fire suppression.
The team has established a detailed safety baseline for LIBs, examining failure mechanisms under thermal, electrical and mechanical abuse. This included analyzing the progression of the thermal runaway gas evolution profiles and cell-to-cell propagation dynamics.
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