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Just Chat! / Re: Is the ever increasing energy density of lithium batteries a major hazard?
« on: 12/06/2024 18:28:55 »My car holds~20kg of petrol(gasoline).Small car indeed. I mean, I drive a 2 liter compact car and it holds over 30 kg of petrol.
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The destructive power of tnt lies in it's ability to release all it's energy virtually instantaneously and this scenario is unlikely to happen with a hydrocarbon fuel except in an extremely violent collision.Not even then. Petrol burns, and only explodes if it can be allowed to completely evaporate into an enclosed volume, much like a grain elevator explosion.
You see petrol 'bombs' in movies. Movies rarely depict realistic explosions of say armaments going off since it is all a sharp 'crack' and destruction, and not so much dramatic fireball. I digress. Point is, comparison to tnt is indeed inappropriate, but the stored energy of petrol can still kill even if not in the same way that tnt does.
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A battery can in theory release a large portion of it's energy in a short time.Still a burn I think. Super hot. Very dangerous. I suppose they can undergo 'rapid disassembly' as some put it.
Yes, it is a problem. A person in an EV is less easily rescued from a crash. There is serious electrocution hazard in a damaged EV, especially if either water or cutting (jaws of life) are involved. This hazard extends to both victim and rescuer.
And we all know that lithium batteries (phones, PCs, and yes, cars) are susceptible to spontaneous combustion much in the same way that a tank of petrol is not. And the burning cannot be extinguished by any obvious means.
There are a few advantages at least. An EV *probably* isn't going to kill the driver by oxygen deprivation or other inhalation hazards. It weighs more, so it acts as extra momentum protection in a collision with a less massive thing.
Concerning the 33% efficiency: How does an EV or a hybrid compare in terms of carbon emitted per km traveled? This presumes that the car is charged with an efficient carbon-consuming electrical source. I did a quick lookup and it says that an oil plant is 40% efficient, which leaves little room for the EV to leave less of a footprint than my car, especially given the extra mass it has to lug around.