Advice from BuRO regarding the safety risks of refurbished lithiumion batteries in consumer products
Provide information to companies that want to refurbish lithium-ion batteries (LIB) about the safety requirements they must meet and how they can do so. BuRO gives this advice to the State Secretary for Youth, Prevention and Sport.
Other advices
Because in addition to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management plays a major role in the sustainability and safety of batteries, the advice is to take a joint responsibility in providing information.
BuRO also advises to stress the need for technical standards for refurbished batteries in the sector and to connect with ongoing initiatives.
BuRO also advocates better recording of incidents involving lithium-ion batteries in consumer products such as electric bicycles. This gives us a better insight into the circumstances and causes of these incidents.
The advice to the Inspector General of the NVWA is to continue the cooperation with other inspection services and, where possible, to strengthen this. The aim is to gain a better insight into the companies that refurbish LIB and/or offer refurbished LIB, and to shape the oversight on these companies.
Background
The use of lithium-ion batteries (LIB) has increased significantly in recent years. Driven by the energy transition, products are increasingly supplied with electricity by batteries. For example, they are used in electric bicycles. Refurbishment of these batteries is also increasing and contributes to the sustainability of these products.
But LIB also have a downside: they contain a solution containing lithium ions which is highly flammable. There is a growing number of reports of incidents with LIB, with sometimes serious consequences. Due to the growth in the number of lithium-ion batteries, the number of incidents is also expected to increase.
Because of the pursuit of circularity and sustainability, an increase in LIB that has been refurbished is also expected. However, refurbishment can disrupt the internal structure of the battery, increasing the probability of an incident. This is partly due to the fact that the laws and regulations that companies that refurbish batteries have to comply with are rather complex. And there are (yet) no specific standards that a refurbished battery must meet.
Answer to the question
BuRO would like to answer the following question with this research:
What is the risk to public health of using refurbished LIB in consumer products?
This risk assessment focused on batteries for electric bicycles, because the growth in the use of LIB certainly applies to electric bicycles. And refurbishment of LIB for consumer products is nowadays mainly applied to electric bicycles.
There is a risk to public health because the LIB can ignite, which can also lead to release of toxic gases. It is plausible that this risk is greater if it concerns a refurbished LIB. This risk is currently not quantifiable, but is expected to increase in the coming years. This is mainly due to the growth in the number of electric bicycles, the growth in the market for refurbished LIB, and the higher probability of the hazard to occur with a refurbished LIB. The complexity of and limited attention to safety in laws and regulations for refurbished LIB play a role in this.
Where this has now been investigated for refurbished LIB in electric bicycles, it is to be expected that a similar effect may occur if revision is to occur for LIB used in other consumer products. Or if, for example, car battery packs are converted into home batteries. With this advice, BuRO also wants to draw attention to such developments in order to pay timely and balanced attention to both sustainability and safety risks in the preparation of laws and regulations and their oversight.