Dramatic Video Shows Lithium-Ion Battery Catch Fire As Dog Chews On It - Forbes

[Caribbeans]

Dramatic Video Shows Lithium-Ion Battery Catch Fire As Dog Chews On It

Forbes | Leslie Katz | Aug 7, 2024

An Oklahoma fire department has shared dramatic video of a fire sparking as a dog chews through a lithium-ion battery—a warning to consumers to handle these popular power sources correctly.

“Fire departments all over the country are seeing fires related to these batteries and we want the public to learn about usage, safe storage and proper disposal of these potentially dangerous batteries,” Tulsa Fire Department public information officer Andy Little says in a video posted to the department’s Facebook page that incorporates the fire footage taken from an indoor home-monitoring system. You can see it at the .45 mark in the video below.

The clip shows a white pup carrying a portable phone charger in its mouth to what appears to be a pet bed on the floor. The dog rests on the mattress and chews on the battery’s cord and casing, when suddenly the gadget emits smoke and sparks until the bed catches fire. The dog and two other household pets, another canine and a cat, jump back alarmed and unsure what to make of the flames.

“Fortunately, the pets involved were able to escape unharmed through a dog door,” Little says in the video. “It could have been much worse if there had been no means of escape or if the family was asleep at the time.”...more
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lesliekatz/2024/08/07/dramatic-video-shows-fire-erupting-as-dog-chews-on-lithium-ion-battery/

Batteries Batteries EVERYWHERE!

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Wow! Saving this to show family members.

[Think. Again.]

2. That's frightening,...

...but unfortunately, we will need lithium ion batteries to reduce CO2 emissions until we can develop better portable energy storage systems.

Maybe if we had stopped using fossil fuels when Mrs. O'Leary's cow started the Chicago Fire in 1871 we wouldn't be in this mess now, but of course, even when we do get away from using fossil fuels to generate our electricity, we'll probably still have the problem of rodents starting about 25% of unknown-origin house fires just from chewing on electrical wiring and equipment.

[Caribbeans]

4. LiFePO4 batteries are supposed to be safer

but not as energy dense.

Lots of new battery stations (or whatever they're called) are now LiFePO4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate)

[Think. Again.]

5. Excellent!

[Metaphorical]

3. This is becoming a big problem with computers

I have a gaming laptop computer with a LIon battery that I do a lot of 3D work with (so making heavy use of the GPU). Especially if a computer is put away without turning it off, the laptop can get hot enough to cause blistering and potentially catch its backpack carrier on fire.

There are a number of interesting alternatives to Lithium batteries, most notably Sodium batteries (which is part of the same Class I elements that hydrogen and lithium are part of). I recently saw a report of a anode-less sodium that, if it can be scaled, could render LiON batteries obsolete - they have a slightly lower energy density than lithium, but they are much less expensive to produce, and because they don't require a dedicated anode, they also run much cooler. Expect to see them in production in the next 3-4 years.

[Warpy]

6. Theere are other rechargeable batteries in various stages of development

The sodium batteries have an edge in that they're already in limited production.

I've also read about magnesium water (less energy dense than lithium ion) and iron-air systems that sound too good to be true. We know that lithium ion batteries are showing their unintended consequences like EEK FIRE!

We might always use the small ones, they seem ideal for cell phones and small tablets. We do need better solutions for things that require more power, like gaming computers and the electrical grid.