As renewable energy infrastructure gathers pace worldwide, new solutions are needed to handle the fire and explosion risks associated with lithium-ion battery energy storage systems (BESS) in a worst-case scenario. Industrial safety solutions provider Fike and Matt Deadman, Director of Kent Fire and Rescue Service, address this serious issue.
This paper investigated the combustion characteristics of lithium iron phosphate batteries for new energy vehicles in highway tunnels. An experimental model of lithium-ion batteries for new energy vehicles caught fire in highway tunnels was established by using numerical simulation Pyrosim software.
New energy vehicles with lithium-ion batteries are rapidly developing, shuttling on the urban underground highway. Lithium-ion batteries themselves have a high risk of fire. Under the effect of external thermal sources, external compression, puncture, and short circuits, etc., an uncontrollable chain chemical reaction will occur inside the battery.
The thermal runaway gas explosion hazard in BESS was systematically studied. To further grasp the failure process and explosion hazard of battery thermal runaway gas, numerical modeling and investigation were carried out based on a severe battery fire and explosion accident in a lithium-ion battery energy storage system (LIBESS) in China.
Large-format lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries with high energy density for electric vehicles are prone to thermal runaway (or even explosion) under abusive conditions.
The main reason for lithium-ion battery fires was thermal runaway. If it was not controlled, thermal runaway may cause the battery to rupture and release toxic and highly flammable gases. If these flammable gases are ignited, they might cause a fire or explosion (Yuan et al., 2020).