Fike Corp., a global manufacturer and supplier of industrial hazard protection, has announced the discovery and development of Fike Blue, the world’s first patented and third-party tested solution to stop thermal runaway.
Thermal runaway is an unpredictable fire hazard experienced by lithium batteries within energy storage systems. The elevated temperatures of a malfunctioning bat-tery cell often cause adjacent cells to also undergo thermal runaway, creating an extremely dangerous fire and explosion hazard.
Fike’s years of testing and collaboration have proven that the various protection methods currently used in these applications such as water and chemical agents may indeed suppress lithium battery fires but they do little to stop the root cause of the fire itself, thermal runaway. This results in battery cells that continue to produce dangerous offgas and may continue to burn and even reignite the explosive atmosphere.
Fike Blue has been successfully tested internally at Fike’s Remote Testing Facility in Blue Springs, Missouri, and by third-party testing organisations, including CSA (Canadian Standards Association) in a UL-9540A test.
Omri Tayyara, Director of Mechanical Engineering at Jule, observed CSA’s testing of Fike Blue: “We were astounded by its performance. Fike Blue cooled our internal module temperatures from several hundred degrees celsius to under 100°C and prevented cascading thermal runaway–a true engineering break-through. It was extremely impressive to watch, and the whole thing was done in less than 10 minutes.”
Fike Blue facts:
- Fully submerses the cells and absorbs the intense exothermic heat without breaking down due to a boiling point of more than 400°C.
- Uses exponentially less liquid than the water required by sprinklers and especially by fire fighters, resulting in far less runoff into the surrounding environment.
- Does not fall under the family of PFAS, many of which are currently under investigation around the world.
- Is stored as a pressurised liquid and discharged as a liquid.
- Is far less conductive than water and has never shorted the cells.
- May be stored for at least five years at 25°C without formation of precipitates or sediment.
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