Cubic Gas Sensing Solutions in Lithium-Ion Batteries Thermal Runaway Application

How Cubic Gas Sensing Solutions Help Early Detection of Lithium-Ion Battery Thermal Runaway Events?

In recent years, lithium-ion batteries' thermal runaway events have attracted widespread attention. To further reduce the loss of life and property caused by lithium-ion batteries thermal runaway, some important regulations have been promulgated. UN GTR 20: “The vehicle shall provide an advance warning indication to allow egress or 5 minutes prior to the presence of a hazardous situation inside the passenger compartment caused by thermal propagation”. GB 38031-2020: “5 min before a danger is caused in the passenger compartment due to thermal propagation, as a result of thermal runaway of a single battery, …, and the safety requirements shall still comply with 5.1.”.

In order to meet the requirements of the above regulations for “thermal runaway warning within five minutes”, the safety status of batteries need to be monitored more timely. Current research shows that for earlier detection of lithium-ion batteries thermal runaway, it is more effective to monitor the gas concentration released by the battery compared to monitoring the battery voltage and temperature. This is because before triggering thermal runaway, lithium-ion batteries will release large amounts of gases such as CO2, CO, HC and H2, and the gas concentration will be significantly increased. By monitoring the concentration of these gases, it is possible to detect lithium-ion batteries thermal runaway even earlier.

Cubic, a leading manufacturer of smart gas sensors, has developed a revolutionary automotive gas sensor technology for early thermal runaway warning of automotive batteries. Cubic adopts NDIR (dual channel non-dispersive infrared) technology for CO2 concentration measurement, MEMS (microelectronic mechanical systems) for CO/HC/H2 measurement, and LSD (laser scattering) technology to achieve wide range measurement for smoke or aerosol. Cubic lithium-ion battery thermal runaway sensors can precisely detect the concentration of CO2, CO/HC/H2, and smoke or aerosol, which are released from the very early stage to the late stage of thermal runaway events.

The remarkable features of Cubic lithium-ion batteries thermal runaway sensors:

•Multi-parameter measurement without false warning

•Detect thermal runaway with a fast response

•Less cross interference for reliable detection

•Low power mode available, benefit for EV power consumption