See the fire
before there's smoke.
Lithium Guardian gives you up to 30 minutes of warning before a lithium-ion cell enters thermal runaway — by detecting the off-gas a failing battery vents long before it ignites.
A lithium fire happens in four stages. We catch it in stage two.
Thermal runaway is not a sudden event. It's a sequence — minutes long, sometimes longer — in which a failing cell announces itself chemically before it ever produces a flame. Lithium Guardian listens to that announcement.
Abuse onset
Internal short, mechanical damage, overcharge or external heat. The cell is degrading but visibly normal.
Off-gas event
The cell vents electrolyte solvent vapour as internal pressure rises. This is the earliest, clearest warning signal.
Smoke & H₂
Hydrogen and hydrocarbons are released as the separator breaks down. Visible smoke begins. Conventional detectors might just be waking up.
Thermal runaway
Self-sustaining exothermic reaction. Flame, jet venting, propagation to adjacent cells. By now, suppression options are limited.
Five sensors. One verdict. Almost no false alarms.
Single-sensor lithium detectors are too jumpy for commercial use — diesel fumes, cleaning chemicals and warm electronics will trip a VOC sensor in isolation. Lithium Guardian fuses five sensor streams through Cortex AI, so an alarm only fires when the chemical fingerprint actually matches a failing cell.
Each sensor catches the failure at a different stage — VOCs first, then hydrogen, then heat, then carbon monoxide. The Portal correlates them in real time and only escalates when at least two independent signals agree.
For the sites your insurer is starting to ask hard questions about.
The UK has a fast-growing lithium fire problem — and insurers, fire officers and building owners are all looking for credible mitigation. Lithium Guardian is sold as a subscription module under the EM8 Portal, with the same hub family as the rest of the Guardian platform.
Battery energy storage systems.
Off-gas detection inside the container, integrated into your existing fire panel and BMS. When a cell goes bad, you get the early warning — and the audit trail that your insurer increasingly insists on.
- Integrates with site fire panel via relay or Modbus
- Per-rack, per-module granularity
- Pre-discharge isolation triggers
Charging hubs & e-bike storage.
Underground EV charging rooms, e-bike stores in residential blocks, and last-mile delivery depots are the highest-risk lithium sites in the UK. PIR alarms react to the flame. Lithium Guardian reacts to the chemistry.
- Fits existing residential block fire systems
- Hub mountable in plant rooms or storage cages
- Tenant alert via EM8 HQ companion app
MRFs, transfer stations & scrap yards.
Hidden batteries in mixed waste are now the leading cause of UK MRF fires. Continuous off-gas monitoring across pickers, balers and bunker zones gives operators a fighting chance to intervene before propagation.
- Industrial-grade enclosure for harsh environments
- Heatmap view across yard zones
- Direct-to-ARC routing via Cortex Connect
Server rooms, museums & data halls.
Anywhere a UPS, ESS or large lithium pack sits next to high-value assets, you need warning measured in minutes — not seconds. Lithium Guardian gives ops teams time to power-down, isolate and evacuate.
- Pairs with Surveillance Guardian for visual confirmation
- Audit trail for FM and insurance reporting
- Quiet, non-intrusive, no airflow impact
One hub, five sensors, the same Guardian DNA.
The Lithium Guardian hub shares its compute platform, provisioning workflow and Portal integration with the rest of the Guardian family — meaning a single SKU pattern, a single training day, and a single support contract for your engineers.
Sensor heads are calibrated per environment (BESS containers, MRF yards and EV charging rooms each have their own profile). Enclosures are 3D-printed in-house at our Cardiff facility for industrial, IP-rated and discreet variants.
Request a hardware sample →The minutes before the fire are the only ones that matter.
Lithium Guardian is rolling out to selected installers, BESS operators and waste-management partners through 2026. See it live on Stand 4/M25 at TSE 2026 — or book a one-to-one technical demo.