ORR Protection Lithium-Ion Battery Q&A: Battery Fire Suppression

Join ORR Protection experts Lee Kaiser and Aaron Wille as they discuss Lithium-Ion battery safety and fire suppression systems for battery energy storage systems, like those found in data centers. In this part of the series, our experts will explore the topic of fire suppression and answer the following questions:
1. What are some alternatives that can better our response to BESS fires?
2. Are there any clean agents capable of suppressing a Lithium-Ion battery fire?
3. What are some other alternatives to suppressing a battery fire other than sprinkler systems and clean agents?

[@charlesdbruce]

No agent can control or extinguish a Li-ion thermal runaway fire! Clean agents should not be used. By using a clean agent, you could create the conditions for an explosion. After the agent runs out (and it will run out), the Li-ion battery continues to off gas - because the agent never stopped the root cause of the fire - the thermal runaway. Combustible gases continue to build up and find an ignition source... boom! This is what happened at Surprise AZ. Unless you can pick up the entire enclosure and submerge it in water - you can’t put it out with any agent. The strategy should be to provide emergency venting of the enclosure upon detection of combustible gases and to keep the enclosures far enough apart to prevent propagation from unit to unit. Delflagration venting should also be included. F500... is laughable. I saw their presentation a couple years ago. They put two open sprinklers directly over an open tray of Li-ion batteries (like inches above). As soon as the batteries started to thermal runaway… they deluged the batteries… and called it a success. That is not a real world configuration. F500 is not the right product for Li-ion fires. Great for oil hazards... but not Li-ion. The only real tool we have is separation. Hopefully, a different - non flammable - battery chemistry will utlimately win out in the long run and we won't have to be concerned with Li-ion fires in the future...

[@ORRProtection]

Thanks for adding that perspective to the conversation Charles!

[@NickGobin]

Good discussion. I'm surprised you recommend Novec 1230 because of (1) the issues alluded to by @charlesdbruce, and (2) because 3M announced in December that it is discontinuing Novec 1230 in 2025. Are you going to specify an agent for a project that won't be available only 2 years from now? Even if you can source a replacement FK-5-1-12 agent, how long will those last since their OEMs will face the same issues that 3M did?
I'm a little more open minded than the other commenter on F500, but research to date is certainly mixed. I don't think it's a silver bullet. ConEd, NYSERDA, and DNV GL found it to be less effective than plain water on battery fires. Even some of the papers that show the best F500 results showed almost as good performance from plain soap.

[@ORRProtection]

Thanks Nick for your question. We're working hard to keep up with all the changes in the industry. In March we will release some additional content related to the coming changes with Novec, so keep an eye out for that content coming your way.