1. Introduction Thirty seven incidents of exploding lead acid batteries at coal mines, metalliferous mines, and quarries have been reported to the Mines Inspectorate over the last 11 years - an incidence rate of 3.4 per year for mining and quarrying operations.
Underground mining workers use Lithium-ion batteries to power various safety equipment including cap lamps, hand-held gas detectors, tracking devices and communication tools.
Lead acid batteries are large cumbersome elements and has significant safety risk, instability in its reliability and finally low value for recycling. Emerging battery technology such as Lithium Ion and NMC batteries are substantially more reliable and predictable, safer and have multiple options for reuse, repurpose and recycling. Why Mining?
During coal mining or processing, coal dust accumulates into the explosion-proof shell of the battery. MSHA [ 106] requires that the outer surface temperature of the explosion-proof shell shall not exceed 150 °C. The ignition temperature of the coal dust cloud is 440 °C to 640 °C.
With the increase in the capacity of a single battery, its energy density increases accordingly, which leads to an increase in the severity of the thermal runaway of a single battery and the probability of thermal runaway of battery packs. Battery safety is particularly important.
Scholars have conducted in-depth research on improving the safety performance of lithium batteries, mainly including the following five aspects: Overcharge protection, overheat protection, a battery management system (BMS), a Battery Thermal Management System (BTMS), and a safety protection device [ 90 ], as shown in Figure 14. Figure 14.