If you’re serious about battery safety, one battery stands head and shoulders above all other battery technologies.
It’s the Sodium Nickel (SoNick) salt battery, manufactured by FZSoNick and distributed in Australia by GridEdge.
With increasing demands for battery safety standards, SoNick is a unique product that helps our partners stand out.
The SoNick battery technology was the first and still is one of very few that have UL9540A certification for safety, stating it will not go into thermal runaway, both on a cell and complete module basis. This means no risk of fire or explosion, even in the presence of external fire.
UL9540A certified
The “UL9540A” test was developed by a third-party safety science organization UL, as a new test method for use in international fire protection regulations (2018 IFC: International Fire Code) and the National Fire Protection Association’s NFPA 855 technical standard related to installation of energy storage systems.
The test Method is for Evaluating Thermal Runaway Fire Propagation in Battery Energy Storage Systems
The “UL9540A” cell test reproduces thermal runaway conditions, measures the characteristics required to evaluate the following fire risks, and compiles the results into a report:
• Cell surface temperature when a safety valve has ruptured and when thermal runaway starts
• Gaseous components and other matter emitted from a cell during combustion
The UL9540A certification tests for thermal runaway using five different methodologies; overcharge, external short circuit, nail penetration through casing and separator and overheating to 800oC,
This report verified that the SoNick battery did not ignite even when heat was forcibly applied from the outside meaning that the chemistry is intrinsically safe. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/fzsonickgroup_mission-activity-6576832590211227648-ou0D
UL9540A comparison to other technologies
UL9540A testing examples showing the flammability of different technologies. Although safer and igniting at a higher temperature Li-ion LFP still goes into thermal runaway albeit at a higher temperature than Li-ion NMC. The SoNick battery didn’t go into thermal runaway under any of the testing conditions.
Although the SoNick battery is a high temperature battery and operates at 265oC it is actually less sensitive to outside temperatures. Crash and gunshot tests in combination with water have clearly shown that this high-temperature battery neither explodes nor burns.
SoNick batteries don’t catch fire
This battery room caught fire when a snake inadvertently got into the inverter and wiring, causing a short circuit and starting a fire. The SoNick batteries, although engulfed in flames didn’t go into thermal runaway and were still operational after the fire.
The behaviour of a salt battery in case of damage
It doesn’t matter if a salt cell is damaged by fire or by any other external cause. The behaviour is always the same.
The steel casing of a cell is deformable and bulges inwards when the outer casing is subjected to pressure. It doesn’t matter whether the steel wall is only dented or destroyed. The liquid sodium metal on the outside in the charged state passes this pressure on to the beta ceramic separator on the inside. This causes the brittle and thin-walled ceramic to shatter. The two hot substances run into each other and react within fractions of a second to form sodium chloride (common salt) and aluminium. During this reaction, the temperature inside the battery rises from 250° Celsius to 450° Celsius for a brief moment and then drops to ambient temperature. Both materials are solid after cooling, so nothing leaks out.
If you would like to know more about getting safe, non-flammable, reliable, recyclable, Sodium Nickel Chloride (molten salt) battery storage for your own home, business or micro-grid application visit us at https://GridEdge.com.au.
We have a number of different sized systems that can cater to your budget and needs from household batteries to grid support installations in shipping containers.