A Thorough Investigation into the Current State of the Art in Safety Management on Battery Fire and Explosion Risks

Battery-powered applications are rapidly spreading in handheld, domestic, business and power storage appliances and in propelling a range of electric vehicles. Fast developments of new battery technology sparked an equally fast development of a new and wide range of applications, showing new safety problems at the same time. The acceptability of these new safety risks across the range has so far not been thoroughly assessed due to lack of statistical incident data. This study explores the wide range of new technology-based battery applications where people are exposed to these hazards, gathers credible incident scenarios and assesses currently available means for incident prevention and mitigation. Battery fire, explosion and toxic fume incidents are emerging as key safety issues in aerospace, shipping, transport and storage, waste handling, the high-risk chemical industry, domestic appliances, industrial power storage, road traffic and carparks. Incidents are causing severe injuries, death and considerable environmental impacts and financial losses. Implementation of both preventive and repressive safety measures is ongoing, yet complicated due to re-ignition and chemicals involved in battery fires. New firefighting strategies and techniques are needed. The authors present an indicative risk assessment based on the presence of risk factors, as derived from a triangulation of experiences reported from practice, scientific literature findings and expert interviews, thereby initiating a risk-based perspective. Several ways to move forward are recommended.