Safe and secure storage of lithium batteries have very few rules governing it. Andrew Draper met a start-up in England that claims to be at the vanguard of navigating waters without many rules as they meet a perceived industry need.
BSB Warehouse has an ambition to be a world leader in the safe, discreet storage of new lithium-ion batteries. The concept is straightforward:
- storage until the batteries are needed by auto manufacturing clients
- provide a solution for OEMs looking to free up space, de-risk their facilities and store their lithium batteries off-site
- secure, compliant storage in small, vented warehouses with double temperature control (5-25°C) and no windows
- camera surveillance, plus thermal and humidity monitoring
- only brand new, undamaged batteries with less than 30% state-of-charge are accepted
- discretion is the word. Customers must fill in questionnaires and sign non-disclosure agreements. Even the neighbours do not know exactly what is there.
The company (formerly known as Battery Storage Box), based near Shrewsbury, England, is run by Nadine Budgen and her partner Paddy Lindsay. Budgen founded it and said the necessity of resolving an insurance issue was the mother of invention.
An utter insurance nightmare
“The insurance companies that are insuring those mega warehouses are saying, ‘Guys, this is just not sustainable. They all have sprinkler systems. There’s a problem, if the sprinkler system goes off, it could absolutely destroy your stock.’”
Budgen has spent a year researching the market and coming up with a solution – in union with a major insurance company. She does not name it but the broker is Marsh McLennan, one of the world’s largest. The warehouse contents are insured for many millions of pounds, she said.
The solution is a 1,000m2 warehouse converted from a barn on a farm tucked away at the end of a lane. “You know, we didn’t want to be on an industrial site,” Budgen said. “I could have found a million warehouses on an industrial site…There’s no signage. Hopefully, on the internet you won’t be able to find our location.”
The site is adjacent to a large lake and a fire hydrant is nearby should fire services need to attend a fire. The landlord is a supportive beef and poultry farmer who offered an empty barn to Budgen after overhearing her talking of her plans at a dinner party.
The local fire service
Budgen emphasises her constructive working relationship with the local fire service, which in fact carried out a fire drill shortly after BEST visited. They share knowledge and understanding of lithium batteries and how to deal with them. She said the fire service is trialling a mobile skip, into which a burning EV can be submerged in water.
“It’s one of the things we’re actually in discussions with them and others about. You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t because Tesla, for example, are recommending that you don’t put it [a burning car, ed.) in water, you let it burn. The very good thing about here again, is that if we did have hydrogen fluoride emitted from a burning battery, it can disperse. There is nobody it could negatively impact.”
The company is exploring the proposal of adding water-fillable containers that filter out gases from burning batteries, should the worse occur.
Several sites planned
The Shrewsbury site does not house a vast warehouse, said Budgen. “I think that’s even more important because don’t put all your eggs in one basket. The whole model that we are doing is we’re already looking for our second site and want to have lots of small sites. I don’t want a catastrophic loss on a scale that, if I’m storing for any of the big OEMs, wipes out their production.”
That would be counter-productive and would mean they would have to wait a long time for replacement batteries.
The warehouse has capacity for 600 batteries on standard pallets. However, no consignment is standard – the company accepts palletised deliveries of 20kg boxes of cells and modules, as well as much larger, heavier batteries. It will store any chemistry as long as it is deemed safe. The exception is scooter batteries, which Budgen regards as “more trouble than they are worth.”
It opened its doors in July and was due to have a rush of deliveries in September/October, but batteries were stuck in global supply chains in Poland and China. The weeks before Christmas were busy. Budgen said this is the very reason why the OEMs need a buffer.
“You know, they can’t rely on the batteries coming in from abroad and then straight into their vehicles on their production line,” she said. “They’ve got to have a store. And that is what we are providing.”
Lindsay explained that their customers are mostly specialist vehicle builders, for example in motor sport racing. They are also in advanced discussions with big OEMs. While they are close to major vehicle manufacturers in the West Midlands, distance from OEMs elsewhere is no stumbling block, given ADR hazardous goods transport.
Budgen went on: “Does the OEM care whether they’ve come five minutes or two hours, they don’t care. They just want to make sure their battery is there on time when they need it, and it’s not going to burn, it’s not going to cause a problem in their facilities. So location is not even a talking point with our customers.”
She expects to secure a second warehouse by April 2024. It will be a similar size to the Shrewsbury one. “I don’t think those sites are going to be any greater than 1,500m2,” she said. “So 50% more, because it is huge money – the monetary value of these batteries is phenomenal. And the energy density of these batteries is phenomenal too, even when they’re not fully charged.”
Her model is discreet, careful, storage of high-value products. “It’s like storing a famous picture or a valuable picture. You wouldn’t put it all in a mixed warehouse next door to a smelting warehouse.” The insurers also like the idea of multiple sites to spread the risk.
The warehouse is insulated and has reinforced concrete flooring that can be heated to prevent freezing. It has solar panels on the roof to generate electricity.
Collegiate approach
Lindsay said the OEMs wanting EV batteries are being very collaborative in their approach. Some want to keep battery storage in-house while others are wanting an external service.
He said: “But you know, everybody’s feeling their way. Even the OEMs – we sat down with big OEMs who said, ‘How do we do this? You know, this is what we are doing. What do you think?’ I think it’s really refreshing, it’s to be at the vanguard of this is and is really interesting.
“And one of the major reasons that Nadine wanted to do it was to be involved from the get-go. And, and it’s very collaborative.” Lindsay comes from a motor sport background, where being competitive and winning races is key. “It’s a very different attitude with the OEMs on this. They’re collaborative, they’re collegiate, they want to hear our views, they talk to each other.”
Customers seeking storage with BSB Warehouse must first fill in a six-page questionnaire explaining the nature of their batteries, the chemistry, state-of-charge, packaging, and confirmation they have not been subject to stress or damage. Some customers need to change their packaging as a result of the questionnaire process.
If any deliveries cause concern during the heat testing, they go straight into quarantine: a sealed container in the backyard.
Monitoring and early alarm
The sensors come from a company which also made temperature sensors for Covid testing. Budgen said she “hunted high and low” for such sensors.
All the warehouse doors have been replaced with secure ones, and the unit has been fitted with fire, CCTV, and thermal cameras at great – undisclosed – expense. Relations with the local council have been smooth, according to Budgen. A change of use from agricultural to industrial warehouse required planning permission, though she said the company “didn’t shout about it being lithium”.
An environmental permit is not required, she said, as the company is not dealing with waste batteries. Asked if the local authority knows she is storing lithium-ion batteries, Budgen said: “I don’t know. No, I don’t think so. But security is so important to us. You don’t want it flagged. But it’s not because we’re trying to be underhand. There’s no environmental permit required because we’re not dealing with waste batteries. So it’s not done.”
Emergency services are fully aware of what is stored, she said. There are almost no rules governing safe storage of lithium batteries in the UK. The British Standards Institution has a working group looking at this with a view to creating a common standard. Battery consultant Graeme Warnell of GW Environmental Consulting told BEST there is a general lack regulations or understanding.
Just because there are no regulations does not mean you have no responsibility, he added. You will still be required to produce your risk assessment. “Do a proper risk assessment at the beginning and how you mitigate risk. If you don’t, you destroy your planning and you will come up against someone more knowledgeable than you.”
A confident future
While Budgen claims to be at the vanguard, she also acknowledges she is learning and does not have all the answers yet. “I’m saying I’m doing my best. I’m reading hard, I’m learning, I’m taking on everybody’s advice, exploring that advice and we’ll develop. But to me, what I’m trying to do has got the basics of making sense. You know, what we’re trying, temperature-controlled monitoring, it’s more than anybody else is doing.”
