Tesla Inc (TSLA)

[boston745]

Lithium battery fire burns through roof of storage facility; evacuation orders in place

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — After several days of burning and reigniting, a fire at a battery storage facility in Otay Mesa increased in intensity overnight Friday, damaging the building and leading to evacuation orders, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said in an update Saturday.

The fire began Wednesday in building No. 3 at the Gateway Energy Storage facility in the 600 block of Paseo de la Fuente in Otay Mesa, which contains lithium-ion batteries. The fire has since reignited twice, with the latest blaze finally damaging the structure.

Firefighters say they were able to keep the fire contained to the inside of the building through their latest update Friday night. That changed overnight.

Cal Fire reported Saturday morning that fire activity increased overnight as the lithium-ion batteries continued to experience thermal runaway. The fire extended into the building components and burned through part of the storage facility’s roof.

Firefighters are still actively working to fight the fire three days after the initial call, fighting the fire from the air using aerial master streams, along with using unmanned portable monitors.

HAZMAT teams were also called in as the fire involved lithium-ion batteries.

Wow several things happened Wednesday. Out of control Tesla, Boeing Engine Fire upon takeoff, BYD car spontaneously combusted taking the building with it, and this battery storage facility fire. Not only did it ignite the first time, but three times total now. Finally taking the facility with it today. Gotta luv Lithium.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/lithium-battery-fire-burns-roof-023657988.html

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How does EMF cause lithium batteries to experience thermal runaway and thus spontaneously combust? One of two main ways:

#1 - Overcharge/Discharge

With various impressed external magnetic field intensities an effect was noticed on the charge and discharge curves as well as the charge and mass concentrations within the batteries. With the two-dimensional model starting from 0mT and going to 1mT had the effect of discharging the battery faster and charging the battery faster. With the two-dimensional model starting from 1mT and going to -1mT had the effect of charging the battery faster. In either case an effect on the various characteristics of the battery were studied. With the experiments conducted on the two types of batteries the effect was more profound than subtle. Discharge times were twice as fast and charge times were equally
affected. With the smaller batteries they all generally charged faster under the presence of a magnetic field due to more uniform penetration. In the presence of the field they also discharged faster. The larger batteries would not see the same uniform penetration because only a small area of the battery sees the center of the coil it is placed on

In this dissertation, they found that external magnetic fields significantly increased charge and discharge rates in individual lithium battery cells; like shown in the following image. They also found that smaller batteries were impacted to a greater degree than larger ones. This is likely a reason Tesla is switching to larger battery cells in addition to employing magnetic attenuating honeycomb sandwich battery pack.

Thermal Runaway of Lithium-Ion Batteries Triggered by Electromagnetic Interference
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9025761

https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0378775320302172-fx1_lrg.jpg

#2 - Stimulation of Dendrite Growth

Thermoelectric current causes asymmetric growth pattern of dendrites.

thermoelectromagnetic convection occurs in the vicinity of the solid-liquid interface, and vortices are generated between dendritic arms. It is shown that the thermoelectromagnetic convection has a major influence on dendritic morphology.

Quote Sources:

#1:https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/theses/1743

#2:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S001793101930225X