AkkuGrain for handling lithium-ion batteries
10 January 2023
An obvious question raised by the recent story about the fire caused by a lithium-battery igniting and seriously damaging Alide Hire Service’s flagship Bristol depot is what measures hirers might adopt to prevent similar occurrences.
If you missed that earlier blog post you can read it here.
A key issue was the intense heat produced by the battery when it ignited, which led to thermal runaway. This is a domino effect where the fire in one cell heats up other adjacent ones, causing them to catch fire and releasing more energy exponentially.
A product range designed to prevent such situations are the AkkuGrain Bags from Dolav, a manufacturer based in Israel with a UK operation in Norfolk. It specialises in storage and handling equipment and sells its products worldwide.
I first saw the company at the Recycling & Waste Management exhibition held at the NEC last September, when the product was launched in the UK after having been developed in Germany over the last two years.
The patented AkkuGrain material is made from organic components and was developed by Dolav for manufacturers of equipment powered by lithium-ion batteries such as forklifts and electric vehicles, as well as battery makers, waste collectors and recycling companies who have to transport or store batteries.
The granular product, which is approximately seven times lighter than sand, is designed to absorb heat and is contained in packs resembling bean bags in various shapes and sizes. It is also available in bulk quantities.
In the event of thermal runaway, the AkkuGrain components are designed to bind toxic and flammable gases. At the same time, the source of the fire is cooled down so that the fire cannot spread further inside or outside the container. In addition, the oxygen is displaced from the electric charge carrier, which suffocates the fire, says the company.
Sales manager Harold Rochet tells me that Dolav has previously supplied AkkuGrain Bags to a power tool manufacturer in Europe for collecting cordless products that have reached the end of their working life for safe recycling in order to meet environmental regulations.
“A hire company could use AkkuGrain Bags in a similar way for storing batteries at a depot or during transportation,” he says. “The batteries can be stored separately from the tools in our UN-certified boxes and you build up in layers.
“You start with a layer of bags with batteries on top, ideally individually wrapped in plastic insulation material. Then you add AkkuGrain Bags on top, then another layer of batteries and so on.”
Also available, are ‘plug and play’ solutions where the AkkuGrain is already encompassed within the structure of the Dolav box, pictured below, meaning that no bag handling is required.
