How Can Digital Technologies Reduce Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Risk?

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How Can Digital Technologies Reduce Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Risk?

The number of fires caused by lithium-ion batteries in the UK are up by 46% since 2023, bringing lithium-ion battery safety under the spotlight once again. In the face of this concern, insurers are urging businesses to adopt stronger safety practices to reduce fire risks and new lithium-ion battery safety legislation is making its way through the UK Parliament.

Lithium-ion battery fires can happen for a multitude of reasons. For instance, contamination, overcharging, temperature change or short-circuiting can destabilize the battery's internal chemistry, increasing the risk of thermal runaway. Digital technologies can play a significant role in mitigating these risks – and keep workers, assets, premises and emergency responders safer – by:

  • Revealing the risk profile of a battery at the procurement stage.
    Analysing the contents of a digital product passport (DPP) – a digital record providing comprehensive information about a product and its entire value chain – will show safety-critical information, such as past battery performance, the bill of materials and test results. At the procurement stage, a user can interpret this information to determine whether a battery is safe to go into operation. The EU Battery Regulation stipulates that DPPs will be mandatory for all electric vehicle and industrial batteries over 2kWh in the EU from 2027 (see Strategic Focus: Product Compliance Through Digital Product Passports).

  • Increasing awareness of risks and safety best practices.
    To reduce the likelihood of an incident, safety practitioners should ensure staff know the risks and that workers receive proper training in the appropriate handling, storage, transport, and disposal or recycling of lithium-ion batteries. Learning management systems (LMS) can assist with the scheduling, administration and analysis of this training. Vendors such as SafetyCulture and UL Solutions, for example, offer LMS that feature courses on battery safety.

  • Ensuring the battery is optimized for safety.
    Whilst a battery is being operated, a range of software – like that offered by ACCURE or Exro – can continuously analyse for ‘State-of-Safety’ indicators, like voltage, current, temperature, state of charge and state of health. This enables operators to be proactive about safety, as they can use analytics to inform predictions on if critical faults are likely and optimize the battery operations accordingly.

  • Improving the fire service’s real-time incident management.
    In the event of a lithium-ion battery fire, the fire service can use real-time incident management systems (RTIM) to augment rescue operations and firefighting. During a fire response, this technology tracks and assigns resources, communicates critical information between responders and incident command, and develops a unified picture of operations by integrating with external tools. There are various nuances in how different technologies do this and what capabilities each possess (see Strategic Focus: Digital Technologies For Real-Time Risk Management In Fire Services).

 

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how digital tools can de-risk lithium-ion batteries. For a more in-depth discussion of the technologies used to mitigate this risk, set up an Analyst Inquiry call – or head to Vantage to view related reports.

Moses Makin

Industry Analyst

Moses joined Verdantix in 2023 and now works as an Industry Analyst in the EHS and Quality team. He focuses on EHS topics such as contractor management, quality management and environmental services. Before joining the EHS and Quality team, Moses worked as a conference producer, developing events designed for business leaders on a wide range of topics, such as EHS, supply chain sustainability, power purchase agreements, energy storage and artificial intelligence. Moses has a BA in Economics and History from the University of Leeds. Whilst studying for that, he completed a summer exchange in Hong Kong and an internship at the UK Civil Service.