HSE battery safety experts present papers at prestigious conference

06 October 2023

Last month, safety scientists from HSE joined others in the battery energy storage research, development and innovation ecosystem to share some of their findings at the prestigious Faraday Institution Annual Conference.

The Faraday Institution is the UK's independent institute for electrochemical energy storage research, skills development, market analysis and early-stage commercialisation.

Under the theme of 'driving towards sustainable electrification of the UK', the 2023 conference took place at the University of Birmingham and was billed as the Institution's largest and most open science dissemination and networking event to date, attracting over 500 delegates.

HSE presented the following papers during the conference's poster session:

• 'Determination of metals generated during the thermal failure of lithium-ion batteries' - presented by Jonathan Buston
• 'Comprehensive study of the gas volume and composition generated by 5 Ah nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) Li-Ion pouch cells through different failure mechanisms at varying states of change' - presented by Gemma Howard
• 'Gas analysis of lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) cells undergoing thermal runaway' - presented by Phil Reeve

The papers are a result of several historical and ongoing research projects undertaken by scientists at the HSE Science and Research Centre in Buxton, Derbyshire. HSE scientists are looking into the wide variety of battery safety issues facing industry as the UK works towards its net zero goals. The papers highlight the contribution HSE is making to this key area of research through the expertise and capabilities that it has available at its Buxton site.

As well as presenting their papers, Jonathan, Gemma and Phil also attended various technical sessions during the three-day conference and networked with like-minded delegates from across academia and industry. This was a great opportunity for some of the newer battery team members to gain an understanding into the research developments going on in industry and academia, providing valuable insight that could help to inform HSE's future research programme in support of its strategic objective to enable industry to innovate safely to prevent major incidents, supporting the move towards net zero.

Speaking about the experience, battery safety scientist Phil Reeve, who joined HSE in January this year, commented:

"This was my first academic conference for a while. I found it really interesting and it was good to see the future path of travel for battery technology. This will help us to anticipate emerging safety implications due to new battery chemistry, size and applications."

Find out more about HSE's battery safety research solutions.