IMECHE Formula Student
Over the penultimate weekend in July, Lithium Battery Recycling Solutions supported the Formula Student event at the Silverstone race circuit, which is organised by the prestigious Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The event saw student teams from more than 100 universities in the UK and worldwide bring self-designed and built vehicles to be scrutinised and run over the 4 days.
For many, this marks the first steps into an exciting motorsport world which is not just about the racing driver but the huge team support behind them to create and make a successful racing car. As such, those taking part will have a keen eye on motorsport careers, and the event was sponsored by FI teams and other motorsport industries to showcase themselves to the students with the potential of them being future colleagues.
E-mobility was a key sector in the event, and some of the student teams had built cars with electric drive trains both manned and driverless. The use of lithium batteries in motorsport is not new, and the risks involved in using them were carefully considered for the event. Neil Carr-Jones, Senior Event Manager for Goose Live Events who ran the event for IMechE, had previously been in touch with LBRS to ask about battery management and especially covering the scenario of when a battery starts to malfunction.
“It was important for the event to run with no risks both to the students and operators,” said Neil. “The advent of seeing electric powered race cars meant we had to have something in place for all eventualities and LBRS suggested an on-site quenching capability where problem batteries could be placed into quickly to stop thermal events from taking place. This worked very well for us over the weekend and only a few of the batteries used were placed in.”
Alan Colledge, Technical Director for LBRS explained “A saltwater quench tank is a proven way to stop the inset of Thermal runaway in Lithium batteries and due to the increased ions, it also safely starts to discharge the batteries quicker than if salt wasn’t added. This helps us take a dangerous battery to one that is safe for eventual collection and recycling through our shredding plant in Luton”.
Over the 4 days, the teams showed themselves as being competent and professional and there is more to read on the IMechE website https://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/focus-on-diversity-accelerates-innovation-at-formula-student-2023
"For many years at Formula Student, we have attracted industry experts to conduct the scrutineering of the student-built electric powertrains. Over those years we have constantly refined and improved our processes and safety procedures, however this year we took the major step of partnering with a professional lithium battery recycling company in LBRS," explained Alastair Stevenson, Deputy Chief EV Scrutineer.
"Their support complemented our safety procedures by providing an industry-standard method to dispose of lithium cells that are showing signs of deterioration or dangerous behaviour. Whilst we never wish for serious incidents, we are realistic that issues will occur and it's critical that we have the appropriate measures in place to handle them. Thanks to the facilities provided by LBRS we successfully delivered a safe event with no disruptive or critical incidents"
If you have a need to manage waste Lithium Batteries please get in touch with LBRS at www.lithiumbatteryrecycling.co.uk