B-777 flight crew reported refusing cargo due to lithium ion hazmat and the documentation referenced...

Attributes
ACN	1616261
Time
Date	201902
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZZ.Airport
State Reference	FO
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B777-200
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 125 Flight Crew Total 12756 Flight Crew Type 1323
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Hazardous Material Violation Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural Weight And Balance

Narrative:

During cargo loading; the ZZZZ ramp loaded a pallet that contain hazmat. When we received the planned ACARS hazmat form; it showed the code of '12'. According to the flight operations manual (fom) there is only 11 hazmat categories listed; so I call the [chief pilot] to clarify what is a code 12. He stated that there was no code 12 and he would conferred with [operations control] load planning. [Operations control] load planning later said that it was a lithium battery. So here; I have a known highly flammable; high voltage; possible uncontrollable discharging lithium battery buried inside other flammable materials on a pallet in my cargo hold. Its code is not the fom; which I interpret to mean that the company has not authorized shipment of such material and my aircraft's fire suppression system cannot extinguish this burning item if it ignites and we are on an 11 hour flight over water flight with any possible divert fields hours away from my route. This decision was simple; remove the battery from the pallet. But ZZZZ ramp stated that they could not remove the battery from the pallet because it was not assessable - it was buried deep within the pallet stack.this was definitely a safety of flight issue; so I requested to ZZZZ operations that they remove the pallet and we had an on-time departure.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B-777 flight crew reported refusing cargo due to Lithium Ion Hazmat and the documentation referenced a Hazmat code that not listed in the Flight Operations Manual.

Narrative: During cargo loading; the ZZZZ ramp loaded a pallet that contain Hazmat. When we received the planned ACARS Hazmat form; it showed the code of '12'. According to the Flight Operations Manual (FOM) there is only 11 Hazmat categories listed; so I call the [Chief Pilot] to clarify what is a code 12. He stated that there was no code 12 and he would conferred with [Operations Control] load planning. [Operations Control] load planning later said that it was a lithium battery. So here; I have a known highly flammable; high voltage; possible uncontrollable discharging lithium battery buried inside other flammable materials on a pallet in my cargo hold. Its code is not the FOM; which I interpret to mean that the company has not authorized shipment of such material AND my aircraft's fire suppression system cannot extinguish this burning item if it ignites AND we are on an 11 hour flight over water flight with any possible divert fields hours away from my route. This decision was simple; remove the battery from the pallet. But ZZZZ Ramp stated that they could not remove the battery from the pallet because it was not assessable - it was buried deep within the pallet stack.This was definitely a safety of flight issue; so I requested to ZZZZ Operations that they remove the pallet and we had an on-time departure.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

B-777 flight crew reported refusing cargo due to lithium ion hazmat and the documentation referenced a hazmat code that not listed in the flight operations manual.