[Rhodes22-list] An Ongoing Lithium Battery Fire At Sea?

[Michael D. Weisner]

Wow, the picture says it all. What a mess! At least, all souls were
evacuated.

I'll bring the marshmallows. Not much else to do other than watch.

This reminds me of the BP Gulf oil wellhead failure and the Fukushima
(TepCo) nuclear disaster, not to mention Chernobil.

It seems that we, as engineers, have always been quick to create designs
that make wonderful use of alternative energy sources but have not properly
considered the various failure modes. Just think about the benefits of
nuclear energy and the associated consequences resulting from human or
environmental related disasters.

Once again, we have assembled an energy system that is burning so hot and
giving of toxic gases that it cannot be safely extinguished with existing
tools. When it burns through the hull, it will just continue to burn as it
settles to the sea floor, vaguely reminiscient of the nuclear subs lost
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sunken_nuclear_submarines).

I wonder if proper crash failure analysis has been performed for electric
vehicles ... Obviously, the delivery system failure scenario wasn't fully
evaluated.

I may begin charging my cell phone, laptop, video camera, drone and any
other Li based energy storage products, outside my home instead of on my
nightstand or kitchen table. I really never considered the reactivity of
such systems.

Mike
s/v Wind Lass ('91)
Nissequogue River, NY

-----Original Message-----
From: Rhodes22-list <rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org> On Behalf Of ROGER
PIHLAJA
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2022 8:33 AM
To: The Rhodes 22 Email List <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] An Ongoing Lithium Battery Fire At Sea?

Hi All,

Almost 6 days after the fire started, the M/V Felicity Ace is still ablaze,
unmanned, and adrift in the Atlantic Ocean.  Lithium battery fires burn much
hotter vs "ordinary" hydrocarbon fires.  In the attached picture, you can
see a fire fighting ship attempting to cool the hull by spraying water on
it.  But, ~1/4 of the exterior steel skin, just aft of amidships, has been
already been burned away leaving only the underlying steel substructure and
you can see lots of other steel skin plating blackened and ready to fail.
Firefighters cannot go on board because of the heat and toxic fumes given
off by the burning Lithium batteries.  All they can do is spray water on the
outside of the ship in the hope of cooling it off.  The only way I can think
of extinguishing this fire would be to pump massive amounts of dry chemical
fire extinguishing media through out the ship and smother the flames.  Then,
you might have to wait weeks for the whole mess to cool off.  I think they
are rushing an ocean tug to the scene.  But, the M/V Felicity Ace is too big
to put in to any port in Azores Islands.  So, they would have to tow it
someplace like Portugal?  There might be an issue getting any port to accept
a burning ship!

Frankly, it's a miracle the fuel tanks haven't gone up yet!

With so much of the skin of the hull burned away, it's only a matter of time
before a storm swamps and sinks her.

Remember, these are the supposedly "safer" batteries installed in EV's.
There are starting to be more and more media stories about the role of the
Lithium batteries in this fire.

[cid:image003.jpg at 01D826FD.9A2384B0]

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium