IDAHO FALLS - We hear about it all the time, lithium batteries overheating and bursting into flames. Cell phones blowing up and laptops being recalled and destroying homes because of a battery malfunction. True it happens far less than the amount of batteries used, but what if there were a way to prevent battery fires from starting.

"Our technology as it will not boil and will not burn, will completely prevent this problem from ever occuring again," says Mason Harrup, INL Chemical Scientist.

The INL teamed up with Princess Technology and has been working on this revolutionary product for years. Testing different components of lithium batteries to come up with away to keep them from exploding.

"One of the very first types of batteries that we ever made was this type of battery. As you can see it looks like a Frankenstein battery, very prototype, very in lab. Not very practical for commercial use," says Harrup.

After years of testing different chemicals and their reactions, they found a way to make their batteries with commercial products that you can actually use.

"The only difference is they're using our electrolytes instead of the one's that have all the safety problems," he said.

As you can see in just a few months they've come a long way from a battery that's laboratory workable, but not very practical, to something that looks like it just came out of your watch or your camcorder.

"Now that we finally had enough breakthroughs that we think we can get a commercially viable product, at least for small format batteries like laptops and cell phones, we've been talking to a few companies and we're very hopeful that within the next year perhaps two, we will be able to bring our first products to market," he adds.

But that's not where ends. Their hopes are to go bigger and better and revolutionize what we drive.

"Even though right now our breakthroughs are only applicable to small format batteries, where we're taking the main direction of our research is large format batteries such as those that would work in plug in hybrids and hopefully one day, all electric cars," he said.