Interest in hybrid battery-powered vessels is growing rapidly, not least in the offshore vessel sector, and while concerns have been expressed about safety, Canada-based Plan B Energy Storage believes its battery design has addressed that issue
Vancouver, BC-based Plan B Energy Storage (PBES), which recently opened a manufacturing facility in Norway, is one of a growing number of providers of lithium energy storage systems that are being used to hybridise marine propulsion systems and heavy industrial equipment.
PBES was started by the original founders of another well known manufacturer of batteries for the marine industry. Founded in early 2015 by a team that already had significant experience in the sector, PBES has taken what it describes as a “blank sheet” approach to designing a marine battery and has designed a brand new battery with a particular emphasis on safe operation.
“We have been validated and audited by and are currently a supplier to Siemens, ABB, Wärtsilä, GE and Norwegian Electric Systems,” Grant Brown, vice president brand and marketing at PBES, said. “We are working on large projects with a variety of end users in ferries, offshore vessels, offshore oil, windfarm support vessels, port cranes and many other areas.
“The reason for such rapid growth with such large industrial customers is twofold,” Mr Brown said. “The first is trust. Our reputation is one of integrity and is that of a group of people who can get the job done on time. The second is the product. According to the validation team at Siemens, our product is two to three years ahead of anything else on the market. We have a number of innovations that are related to performance and safety that we believe make our system the only one in the world able to stop thermal runaway from occurring after it has already started,” although other suppliers have recently brought new solutions to market too.
Mr Brown said this is a particularly significant development, because the Achilles heel of lithium energy storage has always been the tendency for it to have violent, uncontrollable exothermic reactions to overcharging or mechanical damage. “There have been many documented and several undocumented cases in marine applications and testing of this problem. Our goal with the new company was to make a battery so safe that it would change class rules in regards to energy storage, and we are on that path.”
The solutions that the company has developed are known as CoolCell and Thermal-Stop. These thermal runaway protection systems reduce the explosion risk and risk of cascading thermal runaway in batteries that are overcharged or overheated. Another new concept, E-Vent, provides gas extraction from the battery space, allowing any flammable or explosive gases produced by a battery failure to be removed and dispersed safely.
In repeated tests of the PBES system, the protected battery module was overcharged and brought to high temperature. A single lithium cell in a large module was overcharged to the point of failure. Normally, this would result in thermal runaway. However, with the safety systems employed, the single cell failure was fully contained, and thermal runaway was completely suppressed. The cell did not catch fire or experience any form of rapid, uncontrolled disassembly.
“DNV, Lloyd’s and ABS have all attended our safety demonstrations, and we are currently the only company that can meet the Norwegian Maritime Authority’s (NMA’s) new rules on energy storage,” Mr Brown claimed. “The new rules are the result of a public marine battery test in Sweden in October 2015 that went wrong and literally blew up the test facility. NMA, DNV, Lloyd’s and other industry players were present, but thankfully no injuries occurred. However, everyone there was suitably impressed and frightened by the potential danger that had not been addressed.
“As a group with a large number of engineered systems under our belts and decades of marine experience, we have a keen awareness and respect for safety. We do not take the subject lightly, and that is why we have placed our core focus on making a battery that is safer, more reliable and provides greater value than any other system on the market today.”
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