Posted on 04/25/2017 12:53:20 PM PDT by LouieFisk
A train car carrying lithium batteries exploded just north of downtown Houston on Sunday.
The blast was so strong, it broke windows in nearby homes.
"The moment that I got into the threshold and got inside an explosion went off and it threw me into the other side of the door, so there was a tremendous amount of force – I had no idea what was happening." said Tashi Garcia, who lives nearby the railroad tracks.
After the ringing in his ears subsided, he said he checked out the damage to his home. There were broken windows and cracks along the walls.
(Excerpt) Read more at khou.com ...
12yrs ago I built the batteries for Segways. They blow up real good. One day a chick engineer leaned over and arced one with her huge belt-buckle. We all just stared at her, except me, I grabbed it and hurled it outside before it lit everything else up. They literally go up like fireworks, with a very sweet, distinct smell.
Though I got to directly interact with Hg as a kid, I don’t remember playing with Li. Na was in oil in the Chem Lab.
Great explanation. Lithium batteries should not be used in cars. Hydrogen as a battery is the way to go once we advance past gasoline, with LFTRs as the energy source.
NICE!
Ping.
Sounds like Houston has a problem..................
Dead batteries are not dead. They often just cant deliver the voltage they are supposed to.
Usually a cell or two, out of many, fail, and the battery cant deliver enough voltage to power a device. But the unaffected cells usually still have a lot of energy in them, ajd if there is corrosion inside the battery container, shorts can occur and thats where you get the fire risks. Because they will release their energy real quick then.
Should’a been using the Star Trek dilithium...it’s more stable.
Lithium & Sodium are very similar, alkali metals, VERY reactive. The sodium is held under oil otherwise it would oxidize rapidly in air and turn grey > black or catch fire and burn in water, as would lithium. Very reactive in contact with organic matter, burst into flame style.
Hg mercury, the metal, is actually not very reactive except to VERY strong acids and oddly, aluminum. It dissolves the oxide layer that always forms on aluminum in air and so it has the apparent effect of corroding the daylights out of aluminum, almost as if it was a strong acid attacking the aluminum.
I agree. Like having a potential bomb onboard.
There hasn't been a repeat of the fire incident but I'll bet we haven't heard the last of the lithium battery pack in those 787's.
As I understand they are putting a huge drain on those batteries. Even running electric deicers. You can imagine how much current that requires.
Thanks to both of you! I learned something.
Of course maybe those were for the new Tesla 3. So much for those delivery dates.
Ed
“Should’a been using the Star Trek dilithium...it’s more stable.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We wudda tried, lad, but to switch to dilithium we’ve gotta have 45 minutes - we kanna do it!!!
Perhaps Boeing went with the solid electrolyte versions of lithium battery introduced into wire-line oilfield instruments.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.