Technical overview of a safe, configurable, pressure tolerant, subsea Lithium Ion battery system for oil and gas deep water fields

A growing trend in efforts to build more effective and efficient subsea chokes, completion and work-over control systems, and marine well containment systems in oil and gas deep water fields is to replace hydraulics with electrical drives. Electrical drives have advantages such as faster, smoother, and more precise valve control, including real-time feedback on valve position and performance. However, such electrical driven valves require higher peak electrical power to operate than one can effectively supply via a cable when the valve is thousands of meters below the surface of the sea. Local batteries deployed subsea near the valves and subsea control modules can serve the peak power needs, or even backup power needs. But heretofore the classic sealed lead acid battery technology of 1900 is too heavy, too big, and does not last long enough to make these solutions as practical or efficient as desired. The subsea Oil and Gas deep water field equipment industry needs battery solutions that deliver more electrical capacity at less weight and smaller size than old technology sealed lead acid (“SLA”). They want to tap what battery industry expert Cerina Mikolajczak from Tesla Motors calls the “awesome Lithium-Ion technology” advantage [1], such as four times (4X) the energy density of SLA, yet the batteries need to be safe, reliable, and easy to use in subsea deployment. Also, achieving configurable size and capacity flexibility, long lasting subsea operating life, subsea pressure tolerance, and pre-certified testing for subsea oil and gas standards and international shipping standards are very important. Further, saving project execution time and cost by avoiding custom battery development is preferred. So this is not just an ordinary battery at all.