Safety Requirements for Transportation of Lithium Batteries

The demand for battery-powered products, ranging from consumer goods to electric vehicles, keeps increasing. As a result, batteries are manufactured and shipped globally, and the safe and reliable transport of batteries from production sites to suppliers and consumers, as well as for disposal, must be guaranteed at all times. This is especially true of lithium batteries, which have been identified as dangerous goods when they are transported. This paper reviews the international and key national (U.S., Europe, China, South Korea, and Japan) air, road, rail, and sea transportation requirements for lithium batteries. This review is needed because transportation regulations are not consistent across countries and national regulations are not consistent with international regulations. Comparisons are thus provided to enable proper and cost-effective transportation; to aid in the testing, packaging, marking, labelling, and documentation required for safe and reliable lithium cell/battery transport; and to help in developing national and internal policies.