More awareness needed for Lithium Battery risks

We recently had a customer contact us regarding an incident where they had an issue with a Lithium Battery from their electric motorcycle and as a result, it started to expand, vent and was dangerously hot creating an extreme safety hazard at their own home. The customer initially phoned their local council for guidance and was told they couldn’t help and to contact a waste specialist but before long the battery was too dangerous to wait and the emergency services had to be called. We spoke with the customer and advised them to place the battery pack underwater and a suitable drum was found to do so

Our technical team were more than happy to advise on some additional precautions for the customer to ensure the hazardous battery was safely isolated from the house and a plan was put in place to provide two of our specialist High Voltage engineers to the customers site so they could assess the battery and make safe for a collection.

We had some very kind feedback from the customer and they were very happy with the quick professional advice and service provided.  They raised a concern to us that throughout the incident, they felt that the Local Authority was not trained or equipped to deal with this scenario and this could be a worry with the uptake in electrified mobility leading to more Lithium batteries in the household. 

The Fire Brigade actually came to the house 3 times and upon a third visit took our advice to temporarily secure and submerge the battery safely into a barrel of water until it would be able to be collected by a specialist. Upon arrival at the customer’s site, one of our technicians was able to successfully extract the battery from the water and breakdown to its 4 modules, upon dismantling we packed the batteries in ADR approved packaging for safe storage to transfer the battery back to our site for further checks.

Lithium Battery recycling Solutions has vast experience in managing Lithium Battery waste especially damaged and defective ones and can provide a full-service solution to all your lithium battery recycling needs. To discover how we can take care of your expired lithium batteries whilst making a positive impact on the environment, contact us today.