Transport of batteries by road, sea, and air
Many different types of batteries are classed as “Dangerous Goods” when shipped by road, sea, or air. This includes batteries filled with acid or alkali, batteries containing sodium or nickel-metal hydride, lithium ion batteries, lithium metal batteries, sodium ion batteries and sodium metal batteries. The requirements vary depending on the size and capacity of the batteries, whether they are being transported with or contained in equipment, and whether they are being shipped by road, sea or air.
Lower capacity batteries contained in equipment by road are the easiest to ship in terms of the packaging, labelling and paperwork requirements. Higher capacity batteries shipped by air have a lot more requirements attached and typically cannot be shipped unless in a state of charge of < 30%.
Prototype batteries in a limited production run of < 100 are relatively easy to ship by road, but to ship them by air, permission will need to be sought from the Civil Aviation Authority, and their equivalent organisation in the country of destination, and sometimes also from the countries the plane will fly over.
If you would like to ship any batteries, please contact safetydept@imperial.ac.uk with the following information:
- The type of the battery
- The capacity of the battery in Watt hours
- Size and weight of the battery
- Whether it is being shipped on its own, or contained in/packed with equipment
If you are regularly transporting batteries of the same type and specification, then it will be possible to set up a defined process for this. If you are regularly shipping different types/specifications of batteries, then you may wish to sign up for dangerous goods shipping on battery transport, which we can also advise on.