What Extinguisher do I use on a Lithium Battery Fire?

June 28, 2022

Lithium-Ion batteries are a common part of everyday life, at home and at work. They are used in so many battery powered items, from laptops and computers, to power tools and forklift trucks, to e-scooters, e-bikes, electric cars and much more. While they provide lightweight storage of large amounts of energy they can be volatile under stress. A lithium-ion battery fire is a prominent risk with fire hazards being caused by physical impact, overheating, internal cell failure, short circuits or manufacturing defects.

Unfortunately traditional extinguishers have limited capabilities when it comes to extinguishing a lithium-ion battery fire. When dealing with Lithium-Ion battery fires, water-based extinguishers will provide essential cooling effect, but they are not able to form a thermal barrier around the fire. When you run out of water/foam, you’ve run out of fire suppressing power. The battery forms its own flammable gases (including oxygen) and heat, and will re-ignite, burning until the cell fully discharges its energy.

Foam is designed to smother with a film on the surface of the fire, but the film will not survive the high temperatures reached in a Li-Ion fire. Same applies to Wet Chemical. Powder is completely ineffective, as it has no cooling effect, and will not cling to vertical surfaces of the cell. Please note that Lithium-Ion battery fires are NOT Class D fires.

How do we fight lithium-ion fires effectively? Specialised Lithium-Ex extinguishers use Aqueous Vermiculite Dispersion (AVD), a revolutionary fire extinguishing agent. AVD extinguishers contain 17% vermiculite and 83% water. The water content creates a mist to cool the fire, while the vermiculate platelets encapsulate the fuel source creating a thermal barrier to prevent propagation and prevent re-ignition. AVD is also not electrically conductive and is environmentally friendly.

Vermiculite has very strong thermal insulation properties, and therefore prevents heat transfer from the burning cell to its surroundings. This means the chemical reaction is contained inside a heatproof cell so that external flames can be dealt with by the cooling effect of the water. Vermiculite is a naturally occurring mineral: aluminium – iron – magnesium – silicate, that is mined all over the world. Vermiculite mineral is exempt from REACH regulations.

While having an appropriate extinguisher in your home and workplace is imperative, there are also several steps you can take to manage the risk with lithium batteries:

• Avoid storing devices with lithium-ion batteries in places with high temperatures, e.g. hot vehicle or even warm pockets.
• Keep batteries out of direct sunlight.
• Avoid over-charging devices, 30-70% charge only rather than 0-100%.
• Avoid keeping all lithium-ion battery devices together, especially in a bag.
• Avoid dropping, crushing or damaging batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries present a more frequent fire hazard each day as the number of devices and equipment powered by them increases. To shop our range of fire extinguishers please follow the link HERE.