Thermal Runaway in Lithium-ion Batteries Studied

Thanks to artefact for posting about this article in the Always On thread.

An article in Science Daily discusses research that has been carried out at University College in London to try and understand how Li-ion batteries occasionally overheat and go into a ‘thermal runaway’ state. The US Federal Aviation Administration has carried out tests which show that fires could be caused by overheating batteries, and as a result, three airlines will no longer transport bulk packages of Li-ion batteries.

Overheating batteries that cause fires have been reported in the news in recent years, notably in Tesla electric cars and in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

The discussion included descriptions that I find quite familiar in terms of LENR reactions that we have discussed here frequently:

The team looked at the effects of gas pockets forming, venting and increasing temperatures on the layers inside two distinct commercial Li-ion batteries as they exposed the battery shells to temperatures in excess of 250 degrees C.

The battery with an internal support remained largely intact up until the initiation of thermal runaway, at which point the copper material inside the cell melted indicating temperatures up to ~1000 degrees C. This heat spread from the inside to the outside of the battery causing thermal runaway.

The research didn’t seem to be investigating the cause of what caused the thermal runaway events, they seemed mainly to be concerned with safety in the design of these batteries. It does seem possible to me, however, with all that we have been learning, that there could be be LENR events taking place that are responsible for overheating — especially when dealing with lithium, which we know is a key ingredient for the E-Cat.

Here’s a video about the research project: