A battery factory fire in South Korea recently triggered a heated debate on lithium-ion industry safety at home and abroad. Yonhap news agency reported on the 26th that South Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labor Region Emergency Disposal Minister, Central Employment and Labor Department director Min Jixiu said the same day, the ARICELL battery factory in Huacheng, Gyeonggi Province, has been ordered to shut down due to a serious fire accident recently, three persons involved were placed under investigation for alleged violations of the industrial safety and Health Law and the major disasters punishment law. In addition, South Korea’s central emergency response department has requested more than 500 battery factories nationwide to conduct self-inspections according to the lithium operating safety code self-checklist, and led by the fire department with the relevant departments of more than 200 battery business enterprises to carry out an emergency fire safety inspection.
Fire exposes ‘Battery Power’
South Korea’s“Joongang Ilbo” on the 26th published a report titled“’White Oil’ claimed 23 lives, exposing security loopholes in battery power”, saying that according to investigation, two days ago, the factory had a bad battery explosion accident, but the enterprise did not report, and continue to carry out packaging operations. Even the factory has occurred many times in the past lithium battery explosion accidents, and did not meet the South Korean government fire safety management standards. Lithium-ion batteries have been called the“White Oil” of the age of the smart grid, mobile phones and electric cars. It was pointed out that the fire exposed the battery manufacturing powerhouse of South Korea’s fire safety loopholes.
Local time, June 26, a South Korean state-of-the-art science industrial park in Huangchuan County, a battery production company, related to an emergency safety check.
According to the Gyeonggi Province government, Aricell was fined in 2019 for storing lithium 23 times the legal limit, the report said. In 2020, the company was also ordered to correct faulty fire-fighting facilities and management failures. It is reported that the fire in the building with only fire hydrants and small and large fire extinguishers 2. It was revealed that the South Korean government has not developed a major fire may lead to“Lithium” management guidelines.
Professor Nam In-ho of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Korea’s Central University explained that, “The causes of lithium-ion battery fires may vary, but because the battery is highly combustible to begin with, exposure to high temperature, high pressure and high humidity can easily lead to a fire,” he said.
Sound the alarm bell of lithium electricity safety
South Korea’s“Asia Daily” said that as a major battery production country, the relevant safety regulations are still very backward. The use of dry sand or intumescent nitrogen to extinguish fires caused by combustible metals such as lithium is required, but there is no specific type and standard in Korean fire protection law. Therefore, it is difficult to develop special fire extinguishers or fire extinguishing agents.
Hamm, a professor of Fire Engineering at the Seoul National University, said coolants such as liquid nitrogen could be used to put out fires, but it would be expensive to buy large quantities and deploy sufficient quantities to put out large-scale fires.
“It is very difficult to put out a fire caused by a lithium-ion battery explosion, so the best preventive measure is to store the batteries in batches and conduct regular safety training for staff,” said Yoon Seok-jin, a professor in the Department of Fire and disaster prevention at Yousong University in South Korea. But the reality is that the time it takes to educate employees about safety is also seen by battery makers as a“Cost” of investment, “Comprehensive evacuation training or safety education for temporary workers on a quarterly basis is unlikely,” the The Hankyoreh reported.
In an interview with a reporter from the Global Times on the 27th, Merko, founder of true lithium research, also said that such an accident occurred before lithium batteries were manufactured, and it was still a problem of lax safety management, battery factories should pay attention to the safety of production and storage. It is also important to improve product quality. He said that the accident rate of mobile phone batteries has now been reduced to a very low level, because mobile phone battery costs account for a relatively low proportion of the total cost of a mobile phone, adding a little more cost to battery safety, it is totally acceptable to the handset manufacturer. But battery costs for electric cars are relatively high, at least 30% or more. In this case, if the battery safety to consider a little more serious, it is bound to put pressure on the cost of the whole car. As a result, carmakers or battery makers are in a quandary.
In the broader case of electric cars catching fire while charging, Merko said quality could be ensured as long as the materials and raw materials needed to produce charging facilities were not cut corners. Merko analysis, “This is essentially a trade-off between cost and safety.”
As Ningde times chairman Zeng Yuqun said of the Korean battery factory fire at the Summer Davos Forum on the 25th, “If the battery quality is not good enough, when the energy density is increasing, the energy storage is like a bomb. So we have to design and manufacture them to control the failure rate below one in a billion,” Zeng said, this is what a good battery company must do.
Many countries around the world
The accident in South Korea has sparked international media attention on the safety of the lithium-ion industry. “Lithium-ion batteries are powering the world and posing new fire hazards,” the Wall Street Journal said Tuesday, adding that for manufacturers of smartphones, the power grid and electric cars, lithium, the lightest metal, could improve battery performance, raising hopes for greener, cheaper and more durable devices. But it is lithium’s properties that have transformed the energy storage industry, posing a huge challenge if batteries catch fire.
In addition to South Korea’s latest lithium battery fire incident, since the beginning of this year, the world has been a number of lithium battery-related fires, causing concern.
On May 15, a fire Kay Boyle at the world’s largest lithium-ion battery storage facility in San Diego, California, which burned for five days, led to the forced evacuation of some residents in the surrounding area. In addition, a total of 93 fires were reported in Phoenix, Ariz. , in April that were lithium-ion battery at source. These fires involve electric bicycles, electric scooters, electric tools and electric vehicles and other equipment. As of March 15, NSW Fire and rescue had recorded 63 lithium-ion battery fires in which seven people were injured.
The British Security Council said in February that tragic stories of deaths and injuries caused by battery fires and explosions had made headlines over the past six months, each can be traced back to the charging of lithium-ion electric scooters and electric bicycles. This highlights the problems posed by these new modes of transportation.
Fire risk assessments are not uncommon in most workplaces, but many do not include lithium-ion batteries as a fire risk, the journal of Safety and health reported. Although the risk of fire is low, the loss of life and property is often high.
Merko said that the lithium-ion battery fire is very difficult to put out, the main cause of the fire is the battery internal short circuit, or the battery internal temperature is too high. Fire extinguishing can only extinguish the external fire, for the battery, the internal problems may still exist and continue to ferment.