Book Description

Lithium-ion cells are widely used for all kinds of different electrical powered applications. Every technology has its risks and in case of Li-ion-cells it is mainly fire and explosion. Unfortunate famous examples are the crash of a Boeing 787 in January 2013 or the Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 smart-phone incident in 2016. Among others, those events made it obvious that firstly the quality during production needs to be improved and secondly procedures for a proper handling of burning batteries need to be developed. With more and more electric cars on our streets (with Li-ion technology), the amount of burning or exploding batteries will increase due to the fact that these batteries are exposed to crashes and accidents. In this thesis, issues with current emergency response guides related to battery fires are investigated. Based on these findings, solutions for fire fighting, identification of risky batteries, transportation and storage of electric vehicle wrecks are provided and then reviewed with experts. Used methods in this thesis are: Screening existing rescue guidelines for identification of potential weaknesses, research of how to identify critical batteries based on common electrical and mechanical knowledge, tests with real batteries to identify fire fighting problems by applying different extinguishing agents on crashed batteries. Finally the findings of these investigations will be summarized in proposals for handling, transportation and storage of EVs which will be discussed with battery and fire fighting experts. In summary, it can be said, that available rescue guides are basically OK but do not entirely meet the needs of real life situations. The uncertainty of the needed amount of extinguishing agent could be solved by a submerge-tank-solution with a defined maximum volume. These tanks or containers can also be used for transportation and storage and will be very helpful in case of re-ignition. Thermal imaging devices can help to determine the outside temperature of a questionable battery but one should not only rely on this device as it can not unveil the inner activities of a battery. The identification of critical batteries could be supported by visual indicators but such a method needs to be developed. However the technical solutions will look like in the future, training, proper equipment and legal certainty are mandatory for first responders to work safe and efficient.****Lithium-ion cells are widely used for all kinds of different electrical powered applications. Every technology has its risks and in case of Li-ion-cells it is mainly fire and explosion. Unfortunate famous examples are the crash of a Boeing 787 in January 2013 or the Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 smart-phone incident in 2016. Among others, those events made it obvious that firstly the quality during production needs to be improved and secondly procedures for a proper handling of burning batteries need to be developed. With more and more electric cars on our streets (with Li-ion technology), the amount of burning or exploding batteries will increase due to the fact that these batteries are exposed to crashes and accidents. In this thesis, issues with current emergency response guides related to battery fires are investigated. Based on these findings, solutions for fire fighting, identification of risky batteries, transportation and storage of electric vehicle wrecks are provided and then reviewed with experts. Used methods in this thesis are: Screening existing rescue guidelines for identification of potential weaknesses, research of how to identify critical batteries based on common electrical and mechanical knowledge, tests with real batteries to identify fire fighting problems by applying different extinguishing agents on crashed batteries. Finally the findings of these investigations will be summarized in proposals for handling, transportation and storage of EVs which will be discussed with battery and fire fighting experts. In summary, it can be said, that available rescue guides are basically OK but do not entirely meet the needs of real life situations. The uncertainty of the needed amount of extinguishing agent could be solved by a submerge-tank-solution with a defined maximum volume. These tanks or containers can also be used for transportation and storage and will be very helpful in case of re-ignition. Thermal imaging devices can help to determine the outside temperature of a questionable battery but one should not only rely on this device as it can not unveil the inner activities of a battery. The identification of critical batteries could be supported by visual indicators but such a method needs to be developed. However the technical solutions will look like in the future, training, proper equipment and legal certainty are mandatory for first responders to work safe and efficient.