Boat Lithium Batteries and Thermal Runaway

Lithium Battery & Thermal Runaways

A thermal runaway lithium battery fire is up there with uncontrolled gas fires, as one of the worst-case fire scenarios on a small vessel.

While most fires have some form of management or fire control, a lithium thermal runaway battery fire does not.

Today’s batteries, whether it be lead-acid, AGM or Lithium are all very safe as long as manufacturer guidelines are strictly complied with.

Buying Lithium Batteries

Lead-acid and AGM batteries are well tried and tested, with most of their ventilation and fire challenges being well documented.

The challenge with lithium batteries is the myriad of cheaper lesser known lithium brands now coming on the market via social media to private buyers, bypassing reputable retailers.

We need to remind ourselves that reputable retailers have a lot to lose if their recommended batteries fail (including lawsuits from Insurance companies), so they have normally done their homework and carry reliable home-grown warranties.

Is a Thermal Runaway a fire?

Lithium batteries currently fall in the Class B fire category, which means that the standard ABC fire extinguisher can be used.

This, however, is no use if there is a ‘thermal-runaway’ situation within a lithium battery bank.

Thermal runaway fires are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to stop or extinguish.

A simple Google search about lithium thermal runaways will highlight the record so far in the aviation sector, where fires present a particular problem, their lithium cargo record being far from positive.

Legal Liabilty

Recently chatting to someone who had built their own lithium battery bank from imported cells, we found them ill-prepared for a thermal runaway. Their cells had no protection.

If an incident occurred, would the Insurer come to the party? The two Insurers I spoke to said NO. One even stated that your third party liability in a marina is at risk.

So where does it leave a private person, thinking of buying and installing our own?

It's RISK (incident at sea, marina or hardstand) verse REWARD (doing it cheaply).

Insurance Warning

There are incidents and aircraft hull losses caused by thermal runaways in freight loads of lithium batteries.

Technology today also have records of thermal runaways on smaller lithium powered portable devices such as mobile phones and laptops.

Battery packs with thermal runaways on eBikes and eScooters (two in Brisbane Australia - March 2024). So, it certainly does occur.

It is, however, the lack of control of a thermal runaway that is raised in this article.

If you (a private individual) are the importer and, are bypassing a professional supplier and/or installer, here are some thoughts to add to your toolbox.

Number one: Check with your Insurance company, you may find your insurance is void by installing your own lithium. Surveyors will ask you...we got asked for proof by both parties.

So what is a thermal runaway?

A thermal runaway is an unstoppable internal chain event, where a cell or part thereof very quickly reaches high temperatures. The causes are varied but include internal mechanical or thermal cell failure and short-circuiting deep inside the battery.

Due to the short-circuiting, heat is generated by this single defective cell. The enclosed heat source self-generates to much higher temperatures.

The very hot defective cell core becomes unstable, having no way to release heat except to the enclosed surrounding cells thermally inside the battery. The surrounding cells then join in the masquerade and the battery very quickly heats from the inside out, which they term a thermal runaway.

Meanwhile little can be seen at the battery surface. This all happens very quickly, taking minutes to self generate to a point where the battery becomes extremely hot.

Common cues and/or senses used in picking up most other fires include sight, sound, aural and touch (the latter normally being a result of the first three). With early signs of a thermal runaway situation, however, we only have the sense of touch.

With smaller portable devices, lithium thermal runaways/fires are easily remedied…toss it into the ocean.

Vessel lithium batteries used in house banks are normally tucked away somewhere in some very secure robust area. So when it's finally realised that there is a problem, and then questioning if it's battery-related, who would think of touching or even want to touch a battery to resolve a lithium battery fire problem?

Thermal runaways happen quickly (as in minutes) and can get out of hand very quickly.

From a ‘Proactive’ Thermal Runaway Point-of-view

What is the pressing challenge ?

In-built processors

The pressing challenge though is by the time a lithium fire is recognised, all hell would have broken loose in the confined vessel battery area. The suspect heavy battery/s would possibly be too hot to touch and would more than likely have affected the adjacent batteries, making the situation even worse.

It's here that good quality, well-known lithium brands, or lithium battery vendors stand out. The better battery brands have tried and tested small inbuilt processors that can detect a cell problem (and other internal battery malfunctions) at a very early stage, isolating cells before they get to a point of a thermal runaway.

Why is Victron are so expensive?

Battery Management system

Our Victron batteries have lithium battery technology that sadly comes at a price. They do however supply comprehensive datasheets that clearly state ‘our LFP (lithium-iron-phosphate) batteries have integrated cell balancing and cell monitoring’.

They continue by saying ‘the cell balancing/monitoring cables can be daisy-chained and must be connected to a Battery Management System’ (https://www.victronenergy.com/support-and-downloads/datasheets#item=datasheet-lithium-battery-12-8v-25-6v-smart).

With the Victron Battery Management System, the unit ‘generates a pre-alarm whenever the voltage of a battery cell decreases to less than 3.1V (https://www.victronenergy.com/support-and-downloads/datasheets#item=datasheet-lithium-battery-12-8v-25-6v-smart).

The upshot here is that Victron (and a few other brands) have introduced additional cues to warn us of impending issues, which include thermal runaways.

Be armed with a solution.

What are your warnings?

We have a 1000-Ahr lithium battery bank tucked away under a bed in a room, which is difficult to get to at the best of times. However, we are very conscious of possible lithium battery thermal runaway and have planned procedures specifically for this scenario in our Crew Manual.

Proactive warnings help warn of a thermal runaway. The Crew Manual clearly states 5 indicators, mostly controlled via a quality Battery Management System (BMS):
1. Complete electrical shutdown (via BMS),
2. An aural alarm (via BMS),
3. Touch (fire gloves in that electrical room for this purpose, and other reasons),
4. Partial mains electrical shutdown (by way of programming the BMS), and
5. A quality Battery Management System that relays a text to a mobile phone (when within mobile range), and a loss of Main Electrical power has occurred.

What is the message?

The 'take-home' here...

The key to a lithium system is a quality Battery Management System (BMS), quality being the operative word.

Cost-wise - a proactive approach to a thermal runaway far outweighs the reactive approach of a suppression fire system that may not work with a thermal runaway on a sailing catamaran such as ours.

A Class B fire extinguisher (recommended) will do very little to reduce an internal self-generating thermal runaway lithium battery heat source in many small vessel house banks. So we really rely on the inbuilt battery processors and Battery Management System (BMS) doing their job well.

From a ‘Reactive’ Thermal Runaway Point-of-view

Minimise the RISK and take full advantage of the lithium REWARD

There are fire suppression systems that could possibly be used, however, install position and cost is eye-watering. It too uses fire retardant to flood the battery area, some use water that needs to be turned over constantly with more cold water. Can this reactive approach to extinguishing a thermal runaway on a small craft be justified?
Even by crew correctly using the fire extinguisher and placing retardant on the lithium battery area where they think there is a possible fire, provides a false sense of security thinking they doing the right thing.
Crew are placed in a severely disadvantaged position when the lithium fire eventually breaks. Apart from molten debris, the released gases are highly flammable, toxic, and explosive. Worse still is the blocking of escape routes in confined areas of a yacht.
A good Vessel Manual provides clarity for all crew following simple, short read-and-do procedures, making exceptionally good safety sense particularly in this situation. Having an idea on how to tackle any fire on board a vessel, let alone a thermal runaway, is mandatory.
Expecting the crew to be mind-readers, is ill-advised. In fact, you fall short of your duty-of-care toward those crew.

Click here for some ideas from a page in our Crew Manual to add to your own toolbox.
You are welcome to peruse our Crew Manual online, click this link INDEX - LITHIUM FIRES (around page 79), for some great ideas on the Lithium topic and many others. See how we tackle and train on these issues.
Be armed with your research, ask questions and do your homework very well if you are venturing off into Lithium on your own. Legally, you have a duty-of-care, not only for yourself, but those around you such as in a marina, hardstand, or even at anchor with others in the vicinity. Most Insurers now require written proof of professional installation.
We have sold our generator, we don’t use shore power, and have got rid of the gas system (except for the obligatory BBQ). It’s all running from Lithium powered by solar and have been extremely happy three years on (2023).
There are very good quality lithium battery suppliers out there. Do your homework and stay safe.
This is an ‘unqualified research and observation article’ from 2020 (updated Feb 2024), and would warmly welcome any feedback from those more qualified in this prickly area to help provide a cost-effective approach to the challenge facing budget-conscious cruisers and thermal runaway situations.
"I am not endorsed or sponsored by any products mentioned in this article. If you have found this information informative, please feel free to share with your friends"...James (updated Feb 2024).

Lithium Batteries and Thermal Runaway

What is a thermal runaway? Insurance companies and lithium batteries, Victron Battery Management System