As a professional fire protection engineer (but not involved in end-user product development whatsoever), I can tell you that protection of stored and in-use lithium-ion and similar types of batteries is currently a very hot topic (pun intended). The phenomenon of thermal runaway poses new and significant challenges to prompt identification and suppression of fires caused by this type of battery, as does the need for positive and complete elimination of the possibility of reignition after extinguishment of a fire. Discharging a fire extinguisher onto a battery fire may snuff it, but if the core of the battery is still energetic, the fire can reignite and there will be nothing to discharge onto it a second time. The higher the state of charge of the battery when a thermal runaway occurs, the more difficult it may be to manage the event to prevent reignition or a resumption of the runaway. Oh yeah, and then there is the toxicity of the products of combustion or overheating of such batteries even if ignition and flame never occur. Not good things to have going on in an airplane cockpit, but locating the battery ahead of the firewall in the engine compartment potentially exposes it to higher temperatures and that encourages the development of extra thermal stress.
These batteries are great for what they are, a lot of power in small packages. The trick is to keep the lions in their cages and the stronger and more compact they get, the more care we need to take to keep them controlled. Oscar Zuniga Medford, OR
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