News
DL E&C developed the world’s first ‘electric vehicle fire suppression system for buildings’.
DATE 2024.04.02
VIEW 291
“Extinguishing fires in electric vehicles reduces from 8 hours to 10minutes.”
DL E&C developed the world’s first ‘electric vehicle fire suppression system for buildings’.
- Co-developed with Tanktech Co., Ltd., a ship equipment SME;
Differentiated technology draws attention from the industry
- Utilize water pressure to drill into the bottom of the electric vehicle, which effectively extinguishes fire in battery pack.
- EV fires have emerged as a social issue. “Customer safety is our top priority.”
DL E&C joined hands with a SME to develop the world’s first ‘electric vehicle fire suppression system for buildings’. If a fire breaks out, the system moves firefighting equipment to the position of a vehicle, drilling a hole in the battery pack and spraying water to quickly extinguish the fire. As EV fires have emerged as a social issue in recent years, DL E&C is attracting attention for its groundbreaking technology that prioritizes customer safety.
▣ Innovative technology quickly extinguishes EV fires. “A fire is put out in ten minutes.”
Unlike conventional internal combustion engine vehicles, EVs exhibit a ‘thermal runaway’ in which the battery temperature rises rapidly to over 10000C when a fire breaks out. In particular, the batteries in EVs are covered with protective packs, making it very difficult to extinguish the fire with conventional fire extinguishing agents. It takes from 1 hour to 8 hours to put out the fire. Firefighters have to approach the burning vehicle personally, and there is a high risk of reigniting the fire, which can escalate into a large-scale disaster.
Unlike the exiting methods, the ‘electric vehicle fire suppression system for buildings’ unveiled by DL E&C adopts a differentiated method that drills the bottom of the electric vehicle and spray water directly into the battery pack to extinguish a fire. This system consists of a ‘central control system’, which automatically recognizes a fire and orders fire suppression, and a ‘fire suppression system, which directly extinguishes a fire.
In the event of an electric vehicle fire in the parking lot of a building like an apartment, the central control system detects the fire, and translocates the suppression equipment to the position of the vehicle on fire. Subsequently, the suppression equipment uses powerful water pressure to turn a turbine in order to activate a drill. This drill pierces a hole in the lower part of the chassis and battery pack in less than 2 minutes using only water pressure without any power supply, and sprays water to rapidly extinguish the fire.
The performance of the ‘electric vehicle fire suppression system for buildings’ has been verified in the ‘Fire Test on Real EV’ conducted by the Hyundai Motor Performance Test and Disaster Prevention Research Center. Its performance has been verified that it can completely extinguish a fire in less than 10 minutes, regardless of the type of electric vehicle battery, including lithium-ion and lithium iron phosphate.
This system consists of three types: a ‘mobile’ type which moves the extinguishing equipment from the fire extinguishing system to the fire site via rails, a ‘fixed type’ which buries the fire extinguisher under the parking area, and a ‘manual type’ which can be stored in the form of a fire hydrant. You can select and install a product that is suitable for each type of building and the condition of parking lot.
▣ Win-win cooperation between large and small companies ensures customer safety. The system will apply to e-Pyeonhansesang apartment.
The ‘electric vehicle fire suppression system for buildings’ is one of model cases for win-win cooperation between large and small companies to solve the social problem of EV fires. DL E&C co-developed this system with Tanktech, a SME specialized in ship equipment in Busan.
Conceived by the technology to drill holes to extinguish fires broken out inside a ship container, we jointly devised a technology that can be used to extinguish fires in electric vehicle in parking lots within buildings. We developed a new technology, applied for a patent and successfully commercialized the technology after having entered into a business agreement for joint development.
Recently, some apartment complexes and government offices have banned electric vehicles from entering underground parking lots, or prevented from them charging, resulting in disputes, due to concerns about electric vehicle fires. Application of this system is expected to not only ensure building safety, but also to prevent unnecessary social disputes, which will resolve anxiety about electric vehicle fires.
DL E&C is reviewing a trial application of this system at the site of e-Pyeonhansesang apartment. As the charging facilities for EVs will be mandatorily installed in new apartment complexes at least 10% of the total number of parking surfaces from next year, it is expected to lead to a surge in demand of this system. Tanktech has previously delivered the systems to the production plants of Hyundai Motor and some local fire stations. The company plans to expand sales to apartments, general buildings and government offices in and out of the country in the future.
An official from DL E&C said, “As the proportion of electric vehicles has increased recently, anxiety about fires has also increased. The ‘electric vehicle fire suppression system for buildings’ is an innovative technology that DL E&C and Tanktech have created from their prioritized concerns about customer safety. We expect this system will greatly alleviate social unrest about electric vehicle fires.”
Photo caption: Photos 1~4) – The world’s first ‘electric vehicle fire suppression system for buildings’ co-developed by DL E&C and a SMB, Tanktech, is in operation.
