A watermist solution: technical quarantine areas for EV safety

EmiControls has unveiled the Q-Container, a system designed to facilitate the quarantine process for damaged, or potentially damaged, batteries and electric vehicles with the help of watermist.

The management of electric vehicles (EV) and their batteries is currently a complex and controversial issue to be addressed, especially following accidents. Damaged batteries can trigger a whole series of chemical reactions, finally leading to the development of smoke and flames: this phenomenon is also known as ‘thermal runaway’, which can occur either immediately after mechanical abuse or even hours or days later through spontaneous ignition, despite all prevention measures by Automotive OEMs. It has become a necessity to be prepared and know exactly about how to deal properly with a potentially dangerous situation.

To manage the risk, the best practice to date consists in the establishment of a quarantine area, in which it is necessary to hospitalize the car for monitoring, which can last from five to fifteen days, depending on the eventual risk situation identified. Furthermore, in the case of the development of a thermal event, traditional extinguishing procedures would involve the use of high volumes of water and then the need to contain it, to avoid its dispersion into the environment. This is because, as any fire is of chemical origin, the water poured on the car only serves to cool it and mitigate any thermal escape that may develop.

Innovation meets watermist

This issue has led to the definition of a completely automatic emergency management system, Q-Container, based on watermist – allowing the structures and environment to be made safe, markedly reducing the required quarantine area and guaranteeing constant 24/7 monitoring of the quarantined car. When extinguishing fires, watermist achieves a much higher cooling effect than a traditional water jet. At the same time, less water is required and therefore damages due to the extinguishing process itself can be limited.

Nozzles ensure cooling of the car and knock-down of smoke, right before the flooding system fills the Q-Container with water.

Quick, automatic and efficient

Created by the Italian company EmiControls, Q-Container functions through an array of advanced sensors which are able to operate in the very first ‘venting phase’, i.e. venting of the fumes generated inside the battery in the event of onset of thermal escape. Combined with watermist technology and the supporting automatic flooding system, the system works to contain and quickly halt any thermal events in a completely automatic manner. Thanks to the watermist, a double effect is possible: cooling the battery pack and hot surfaces, as well as controlling and reducing smoke and soot significantly.

Watermist has the crucial advantage that it cools better and reaches hidden sources of fire better due to the short sedimentation time. Original source of theory: Zhang, L., Jin, K., Sun, J. et al. A Review of Fire-Extinguishing Agents and Fire Suppression Strategies for Lithium-Ion Batteries Fire. Fire Technol (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-022-01278-3

EVs, which are clearly on the rise worldwide, and their rare but intense problems related to thermal runaway will have to be managed correctly in the future – the combination of watermist and the Q-Container system is an innovative method to help face and solve the issue.

To watch a video of Q-Container, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-o1D6rFLvY&t=1s

For more information, go to www.emicontrols.com/en/e-mobility/