Since 2020, there have been nearly 500 fires caused by e-bike batteries in New York City. And there have been 208 fires and 14 deaths this year alone. Similar problems are reported in London, San Diego, San Francisco, and other largely populated cities around the world. In addition, there are an increasing number of fires from e-cigarettes, battery powered lawn and garden tools, and other consumer devices.
Compounding this challenge from a consumer perspective is the relative inability of conventional smoke alarms to detect the emissions that come from a burning lithium-ion battery. Smoke alarms are designed to detect the smoke that comes from burning wood, plastic, paper, and other articles, which range in size from a few microns to tens of microns. Their effectiveness to detect particles drops significantly below 1 micron. And unfortunately, the smoke from a lithium-ion battery is primarily below 100 nanometers, or 1/10th of a micron—too small for conventional smoke alarms to detect accurately. Because of this, conventional smoke alarms must await other flammable materials to catch fire and emit detectable smoke.
However, lithium-ion battery fires do give off detectable emissions such as hydrogen, carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Detectors for these gases exist, and these form the core of the Soteria technology. Additionally, many batteries are designed to have a venting event prior to ignition, which enables the Soteria technology to alert residents and first responders from up to 15 minutes before a fire starts. In one set of tests, the hydrogen levels from a single lithium-ion battery cell going into thermal runaway brought the hydrogen levels from below 1 ppm (ambient) to over 500 ppm.
Soteria will be launching a line of lithium-ion battery fire alarm systems at CES in Las Vegas in January 2024, which will range from a simple detector and alarm system to more robust detection systems, communication, and fire mitigation responses. Soteria will be supported by one of the largest consumer device manufacturers in the world.
"Our mission is to improve battery safety in whatever way possible," said Dr. Brian Morin, CEO of Soteria, "So we are both offering it up for license and seeking advanced development partners to help us get it into as many consumers hands as quickly as possible." Dr. Morin will be hosting a webinar at 11am on Tuesday, October 31, 2023, which is open to anyone interested in learning more. Registration for the webinar is open to all and may be found at https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIldu-urDsrG9Rnv-haAYsylq_U1Niyx79F.
