Fire Protection for Lithium-ion Battery Storage and Manufacturing
What needs attention
- Extinguishing visible flames does not prove that heat generation inside a cell has stopped
- Gaseous agents may control surrounding flames but generally provide limited cooling of cells in continuing thermal runaway
- Water-based protection can provide important cooling and exposure control when designed and applied for the tested system
- Vent gases can be toxic and flammable before visible smoke or flame appears
- Early off-gas detection may add warning time but must be validated for cell chemistry, airflow and alarm thresholds
- State of charge, cell format and spacing materially change heat release and propagation behaviour
- Damaged, swollen, recalled, returned or suspect batteries need controlled quarantine—not normal stock storage
Controls that reduce risk
- Create separate inventories for cells, modules, finished packs, damaged returns and waste
- Record chemistry, model, state of charge, quantity and storage location in the emergency information pack
- Quarantine swollen, hot, leaking, damaged, recalled or water-exposed batteries in an engineered location
- Verify charger, BMS, fusing, contactors and temperature-monitoring compatibility
- Use representative propagation and fire-test evidence to approve rack spacing, barriers, ventilation and suppression
- Provide remote shutdown, clear signage, access and responder connection points
- Coordinate automatic detection, ventilation, suppression, alarms and shutdowns in one tested cause-and-effect matrix
- Plan extended thermal monitoring, safe dismantling, transport, disposal and contaminated runoff after an event
Understand and apply the guidance
To protect against the dangerous possibility of thermal runaway, places where lithium-ion batteries are stored or made need special fire suppression systems.
What is Thermal Runway?
Lithium-ion batteries are charged and drained to meet the grid’s energy needs. This flow of energy into and out of the batteries heats them up. When a battery is made wrong, a short can happen, which can cause thermal runaway.
Thermal runway happens when the temperature of one battery cell causes the temperature of the cells around it to rise as well. Fires in these batteries can get very dangerous, and they can start up again hours or days later because of thermal runaway.
Fire Suppression Systems
Because thermal runaway is so dangerous, it is especially important that lithium-ion batteries have specialized fire suppression systems that put out fires quickly and effectively. Some types of fire suppression systems used in these areas are:
- inert gas systems,
- novec fire suppression,
- water mist systems,
- clean agent fire suppression,
Detection Systems
In places where lithium-ion batteries are stored or made, it is important to find a fire quickly. Some effective detection systems in these areas include:
- Li-Ion Tamer early warning off gas detection systems
- VESDA smoke detection
Common unsafe practices
- Calling the event 'thermal runway' instead of thermal runaway
- Listing inert gas, Novec, clean agent and water mist as equally effective universal solutions
- Assuming an ABC extinguisher can stop internal thermal runaway in a large battery system
- Designing from cell-level data when the installed rack or container has not been representatively tested
- Ignoring flammable off-gas accumulation and explosion pressure
- Mixing damaged returns with saleable stock or charging batteries in egress routes
- Placing emergency disconnects where responders must approach the hazard to use them
- Declaring the incident over immediately after flame knockdown without thermal monitoring and re-ignition planning