Fire, Explosions Destroy Canadian Lithium-Battery Recycling Plant
By Scott Doggett November 10, 2009
Authorities today are trying to determine the exact cause of a spectacular fire at a lithium-battery-recycling facility in Trail, Canada, owned and operated by Toxco Inc., an Anaheim, California, company that has a recycling agreement with electric-car maker Tesla Motors and recently received $9.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to expand its recycling operations.
Fire officials and Toxco executives said today that they believe Saturday night's blaze, which set off a series of explosions witnesses described as resembling a fireworks show, likely started with an internal short in one of the used lithium-ion batteries stored at the 70,000-square-foot facility.
The 52 firefighters who responded to reports of explosions at the plant were forced to let the fire burn itself out because lithium is highly reactive to water.
Trying to douse the flames would only have made them worse, fire official John MacLean said, adding that environmental authorities were called in because lithium emits lithium oxide and the corrosive lithium dioxide.
According to the company's Website, Toxco is the only company in the world "that can recycle any size or type of lithium battery."
The company's credentials no doubt contributed to Toxco receiving a DOE grant in August to expand its battery-recycling operations in preparation for the mass production of large-format lithium batteries expected to occur in coming years as gasoline-electric hybrids and pure-electric vehicles enter the market in great numbers.
Like spent nuclear fuel rods, used large-format lithium-ion batteries pose a serious environmental problem, because their disposal carry various risks, including the threat of fire and explosion.
At its fire-gutted recycling facility adjacent to the Columbia River in southern British Columbia, Toxco had inventoried incoming lithium-battery waste and then stored it in earth-covered concrete storage bunkers after residual electrical energy from the spent batteries had been removed.
If necessary, the company said, batteries underwent Toxco's "patented cryogenic process," which cooled them to a minus-325 degrees prior to handling.
"Lithium, although normally explosively reactive at room temperature, is rendered relatively inert at this temperature," a company spokesman said.
It would appear that the residual electricity in at least one battery hadn't been removed soon enough.
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According to Toxco's press release the entire facility was not destroyed. Only one storage building was affected and the actual recycling line is still in operation.
Also, there is no proof that the fire was caused by a large format Li-Ion battery. Li-Ion batteries do not contain pure lithium, they actually contain an alloy material which is not nearly as reactive. More likely the fire was caused by a malfunctioning pure lithium metal battery.
The CBC is reporting that there have been at least five smaller fires at the facility in recent years.
Not sure if I'd believe everything in the company press release.
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