Comments by "" (@EbenBransome) on "the e-scooter /e-bike blaze in London" video.
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@katrinabryce I suspect I've hd a bit more to do with hazardous chemicals than you have. 50 years ago I got pneumonia from a sodium and water hydrogen explosion, never again!
Yes lithium reacts with water to produce hydrogen. However when a lithium battery starts to burn, what you are mostly seeing is burning electrolyte and separator. Immediate dumping in water drops the temperature.
The first lithium batteries had solid lithium in the anode which was dangerous. The invention of the carbon anode largely fixed that.
The lithium is stored in the electrodes and isn't immediately available to the water, so the reaction rate is limited unless the lithium melts out. Which cooling it with water is intended to prevent.
Unlike sodium or potassium, lithium doesn't normally self-ignite on the surface of water. If it is producing hydrogen, that too needs a spark or high temperature to cause ignition. What's more, hydrogen diffuses very fast, so ventilation gets rid of it quite rapidly.
In short, the way to deal with a lithium battery fire is to get it into cold water as quick as possible, keep the water coming and ventilate, whereas with an oil fire you need to exclude air and not apply water because the oil simply floats on top of it, and it can make the fire spread.
Solid state batteries are regarded as the long term answer because they do not contain the flammable electrolyte. Dealing with them would be basically like dealing with a "normal" fire - exclude air.
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