In the coming years, we can expect more fires as these batteries slowly corrode.
“we can expect more fires as these batteries slowly corrode.”
People have a bad habit of keeping old smartphones, tablets , laptops and power tool packs. Once they reach low state of charge due to self discharge they pose little risk of thermal run away as they eventually reach near zero state of charge. The lithium in ion form is not what catches fire or busts cases open, it’s the electrolyte that burns and you need a pretty good state of charge to get a thermal runaway event. At worse a old fully discarded cell is going to leak caustic liquids all over.
The cause of most thermal runaway is overcharging leading to gas generating and shorting the contacts out due to contact with a near by cells opposite contact as the cells.expand under pressure.