4 ms·
Add to the fact that the fuel is Lithium and you’re in for a badddddd time
by quartesixte 4y ago
Add to the fact that the fuel is Lithium and you’re in for a badddddd time
- kwhitefoot 4y agoThere really isn't as much lithium in a battery pack as people seem to think. The 450 kg pack in a Model S has about 60 kg of lithium. Dutch fire fighters dump the whole car in a skip full of water to cool it down once they have contained the fire so that it burns out but doesn't set light to anything else. 60 kg is roughly 9 kmol and 1 mol has a heat of combustion of 300 kJ/mol so if burnt in air it would release 3e5 * 9e3 = 27e8 J which is about 75 kWh (coincidentally about the same as the battery capacity). Enough energy to raise a ton of water by 67.5 K. So if you can submerge it in water it will pose no further risk. I presume that the lithium water reaction releases a similar amount of energy if the hydrogen burns, someone with a better knowledge of the chemistry could correct me.