Re: battery fire

On 1/19/25 08:25, Sergey Kubushyn wrote:

Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:

On 18/01/2025 9:37 pm, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>

On 17/01/2025 21:42, Martin Brown wrote:
>

Lithium ion battery fires are virtually impossible to put out - you have
to let them burn out and use boundary cooling on the neighbouring
modules with copious amounts of water. Looks like this one managed to
get away from the fire fighters (which isn't supposed to happen).

>
We have no problem building large windmills at sea. Why not build the
lithium storage facilities off the coast too? The capital cost would be
higher, but once built they could be maintained in a similar way to
those on land. And if one caught fire, there's plenty of water around to
put the fire out, or at least keep it under control. For even greater
safety - and expense - they could be built as submerged facilities,
where any fire could be dealt with in seconds by opening a valve and
letting sea water flood the building.

>
I seem to remember from my chemistry lessons that lithium reacts
violently with water.  Containing lithium pollution of large areas of
the sea in stormy conditions (which is when catastrophic failure is most
likely to occur) might be quite difficult.

>
It wasn't lithium but sodium. Potassium was even worse. Lithium does
react in a similar way, but it schools didn't keep stocks of lithium
metal around fifty years ago, and probably still don't.

 What that word salad was supposed to mean?
 Lithium reacts violently with water. Furtermore, it is lighter than ANY
liquid known to a man so it floats in EVERYTHING you could put on it. But
wait, there is more -- that black crust that it gets covered with in no time
when subjected to air is not oxide but NITRIDE. Unlike sodium and potassium
lithium readily reacts with both oxygen and nitrogen and it burns
spectacularly even in pure nitrogen, without any oxygen present.

 From direct experience, I know it is quite stable in dry air.
It tarnishes in seconds in air with normal humidity levels,
and yes, it reacts violently with water.
Jeroen Belleman