Per Blomqvist

Toxic fluoride gas emissions from lithium-ion battery fires

Lithium-ion battery fires generate intense heat and considerable amounts of gas and smoke. Although the emission of toxic gases can be a larger threat than the heat, the knowledge of such emissions is limited. This paper presents quantitative measurements of heat release and fluoride gas emissions during battery fires for seven different types of commercial lithium-ion batteries. The results have been validated using two independent measurement techniques and show that large amounts of hydrogen fluoride (HF) may be generated, ranging between 20 and 200u2009mg/Wh of nominal battery energy capacity. In addition, 15–22u2009mg/Wh of another potentially toxic gas, phosphoryl fluoride (POF3), was measured in some of the fire tests. Gas emissions when using water mist as extinguishing agent were also investigated. Fluoride gas emission can pose a serious toxic threat and the results are crucial findings for risk assessment and management, especially for large Li-ion battery packs.

Author Correction: Toxic fluoride gas emissions from lithium-ion battery fires

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper.

Fire Safety of Waste Storage

The EC Directive on landfill of waste and the development of different national regulations, together with the need and interest for biofuels, have resulted in more extensive handling and storage of these products. Calorific value and bulk density are for most fractions lower than for example oil, which translates into a further increase in volumes of fuel needed for a given amount of energy. Since the material is to be used as a high-grade fuel, higher requirements are placed on the storage technology. There will also probably be strong desire to place stocks in direct connection with for example a specific industry or co-generation plant, to minimize the need for transport. Overall, this means that very large production and handling facilities with large stocks will be required. These new types of storages also mean new types of risks. There is therefore a great need for knowledge on the risks for spontaneous ignition, fire characteristics, and risk for fire spread for these fuels and storages. If a fire occurs it can lead to significant problems with emissions and in many cases the rescue services have problems with handling these fires. These fires can also lead to large economic losses. It is, therefore, important to know both how to avoid and how to facilitate extinguishment of these fires.In the paper some trends regarding storage of waste are discussed together with the risks for self-heating and emissions. Experiences from real fires are presented and some existing guidelines for storage of waste are discussed.