Corvus Energy Hosts Thermal Runaway Mitigation Testing

State-of-the-art design features of the Corvus energy storage system (ESS) were on display as testing deliberately bypassed all built-in safety systems and induced thermal runaway in a Corvus battery module while regulatory authorities and customers watched.

Testing of Corvus battery technology was conducted over a three week period at the SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden in the city of Borås. The tests were conducted with a multiple-battery pack consisting of seven 6.5 kWh Corvus AT6500 lithium polymer battery modules.  Testing showed that when a thermal runaway event is initiated, the event is confined to a single 6.5 kWh module, even under worst case conditions.  Testing also demonstrated that an external fire does not cause dangerous temperatures in the battery system with Corvus’ proprietary design.

Representatives from all parts of the marine industry were invited to view the final two days of testing including ship owners, energy and propulsion system integrators, ship builders, Class societies and maritime authorities.

Creating the conditions for thermal runaway involved significant efforts including: bypassing of safety features, ignoring feedback data from the battery management system (BMS), pre-conditioning of the battery cells, and intentional misuse of the Corvus module.

Corvus was congratulated by Class societies and maritime authorities in attendance for its transparent and collaborative approach to this important safety issue.  Corvus is the only battery supplier to the commercial marine industry who has performed such testing.  The results will inform future industry practices involving the installation of large scale battery systems on vessels and offshore rigs.

“This testing highlights the success of our continued research and development work at Corvus that is aimed at ensuring that we offer the safest energy storage systems in the industry today.” said Andrew Morden, President and CEO, Corvus. “We will continue our industry leadership by working openly with our partners to ensure the adoption of large scale energy storage solutions by our customers is done in both an innovative and safe manner.”

Corvus Energy makes the only lithium ion ESS Type-Approved by Lloyds Register, DNV GL and ABS.