We take a look at the lithium battery supply chain to determine the potential dangers the material poses, as well as the regulations and safeguards that can reduce risks.
ncreased demand for clean energy technologies is spiking the production of lithium batteries – used in everything from electric vehicles to laptops. Yet despite the clean energy credentials of these materials, their safe storage and disposal is a point of concern for some companies, evidenced by a factory fire in South Korea this June, killing at least 22 people.
Just how dangerous are lithium-ion batteries?
Fires caused by lithium-ion batteries are by no means common. However, on the rare occasions that something does go wrong, the impacts can be disastrous, with these fires near impossible to extinguish and often releasing a wave of toxic gases into the surroundings.
“When a lithium-ion battery is abused, whether by overcharging or crushing, [it goes] into what’s called thermal runaway,” says Paul Christensen, chair of pure and applied electrochemistry at Newcastle University and project lead of the battery safety initiative, SafeBatt.
“[It] gets hotter and hotter while also starting a chemical process that generates huge volumes of gas,
“What can happen with the larger batteries, for example with electric vehicles, is the battery explodes due to pressure – though this is still extremely rare. Depending on the chemical of the battery, you could get an explosion that creates a fire 10mlong or, if the gas gets outside the object and ignites, you can get rocket-like flames at temperatures in excess of 1,000°C.”
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The Faraday Institution, an energy storage research consortium, says rates of ‘catastrophic failure’ in lithium-ion batteries are currently only one in 40 million. However, safeguarding against these incidents is of increasing importance as lithium-ion batteries are becoming more prevalent.
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