Li‑Ion Battery and Electrical Vehicle Safety Webinars with WRI‑India

The Underwriters Laboratories electrochemical safety team has collaborated with World Resources Institute, India (WRI-India) on two webinars this year as part of an ongoing series on electric mobility. “Lithium-ion Battery Hazards and Design Challenges for the Electric Vehicle Sector" and “Electric Vehicle Safety: Thermal Runaway and Fire Characteristics and Suppression in Lithium-ion Batteries” were attended by almost 500 participants from around the world.

On May 25, 2020, Underwriters Laboratories Research Director Dr. Judy Jeevarajan presented “Lithium-ion Battery Hazards and Design Challenges for the Electric Vehicle Sector” to participants India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Philippines, Germany, South Korea, Belgium, United Arab Emirates, Norway, China, Morocco, Taiwan, Singapore and other countries around the world. 

On August 31, 2020, Dr. Jeevarajan presented “Electric Vehicle Safety: Thermal Runaway and Fire Characteristics and Suppression in Lithium-ion Batteries,” where she shared key insights on the nature of thermal runaway and fires associated with two different cathode chemistries and trends observed at the single cell, module and battery sizes. She also discussed how the composition and concentration of the gases evolved during a thermal runaway event with smoke or fire, which showed that some of the flammable gases released were in concentrations that were above the lower flammability level (LFL). Results from the fire suppression studies on lab scale lithium-ion cell modules using different types of extinguishing agents were presented during the webinar. The research on fire characterization and suppression was carried out in collaboration with Dr. Pravin Gandhi, Alex Klieger and their team from the UL Fire Research group. Around 116 participants from different countries attended the session.