Lithium-ion battery safety… an open question
MIT’s Technology Review has this story that takes a look at the issue of safety related to lithium-ion batteries and their application in electric cars. We’ve all heard stories about exploding laptops or cellphones that catch on fire, and this all relates to the issue of “thermal runaway” — i.e. chemical reactions in lithium-ion systems that can get out of control. Naturally, we don’t want this happening in the cars we drive, which is why a slew of lithium-ion developers such as Valence and A123 have focused their attention on battery chemistries that reduce this risk. Much progress has been made. The article suggests safety concerns regarding lithium-ion batteries could pose one of the biggest challenges to the introduction of electric cars, even though cases of thermal runaway are relatively rare. This bothers me, because it avoids mention of the fact that ICE-based cars also have manufacturer defects that can cause explosions, lead to break failure, etc… Just today Ford recalled 1.2 million trucks and SUVs because of a defect that could cause a fire.
So before we get fixated on the safety risks of lithium-ion batteries, which admittedly are real and must be overcome, let’s put this all into perspective.
Tyler Hamilton is senior energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper. Tyler can be reached at tyler@cleanbreak.ca
August 17th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
Just to continue this story… Valence Technology Inc. has – apparently succesfull – tackled this problem recently. They replaced one of the compounds responsible for the ignition by a harmless surrogate, making the battery very harmless in even extreme conditions. Their technology is called Ucharge. Worth checking out at http://www.valence.com/ucharge.asp for those of us who are interested in those things.
September 2nd, 2006 at 1:38 am
Hopefully Valence doesn’t catch on, because A123 is a significantly better technology. They have drastically increased the life cycle of Li Ion by a factor of at least four. The cost is coming down and will probably be close to tradition Li Ion in a year or two (check out Hybrids Plus, about $7500 for 4.5 kWh for next year). A123 is probably a very good place to put some stock, because they will probably be taking over for all the current Li Ion producers in the near future.