LiMobility Focuses on Electric Vehicle Battery Fire Suppression Solutions
Instantly, a fire breaks out in an electric car, and the suffocating fire cover and water tank are not enough to put it out
Development of an electric vehicle lower penetration injection nozzle… Cooling by directly injecting extinguishing agent into the battery
Public Procurement Service Innovative Product Registration… Commercialization this year, Parking Lot Installation Flame Retardant Film Also Researched
Electric vehicle fires are scary. On the 1st of this month, a fire broke out in an electric vehicle that was parked in the underground parking lot of an apartment in Incheon. The fire started without any impact, and the large flames were not extinguished for more than 5 hours, burning 87 surrounding vehicles and causing damage to 783 vehicles due to heat or soot. The fire started in only one vehicle, but over 170 firefighters were dispatched at the time of the fire.
The fact that this fire occurred in a luxury car, a Mercedes-Benz electric car, is also increasing anxiety about electric cars in general. As of last year, the fire frequency of electric cars was 1.32 per 10,000 vehicles, which is about 30% lower than the 1.86 per 10,000 vehicles of general vehicles. However, because of the characteristic of electric cars that continue to burn for several hours after a fire occurs, it seems that the public’s anxiety will not subside easily.
LiMobility (CEO Lee Jae-hwan, 46), located in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, is a startup that creates a system to extinguish electric vehicle battery fires. The company was founded in 2022, when related fires continued to increase following the first electric vehicle fire in 2017. CEO Lee, whom we met at the headquarters in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon on the 26th, said, “The distribution of electric vehicles has also increased significantly during the same period. As the number of electric vehicles with long driving periods increases, fires are likely to become more of a problem, so we started looking for a solution.” CEO Lee received several phone calls during the interview. He said that inquiries have increased recently because the company’s product was designated as an innovative product by the Public Procurement Service as an electric vehicle fire suppression device. The product is in the final stages of development. The company conducted proof of concept (PoC) with a prototype early this year, and plans to release the finished product within the year.● The key is to lower the temperature around the battery.
If an electric vehicle battery catches fire, a thermal runaway phenomenon occurs that is difficult to extinguish. Even if you spray the fire extinguisher with a regular powder fire extinguisher, the battery flames are briefly suppressed and then quickly revived. This is clearly different from a regular vehicle fire. Even if the fire extinguisher blocks the air, it is useless because the heated lithium-ion battery emits flammable gases along with oxygen and burns. Firefighters also use asphyxiation fire covers, but these are not intended to extinguish the battery fire, but to slow the spread of flames or smoke to nearby vehicles or buildings. Mobile water tanks take time to install, so they are difficult to apply during the golden time, and are mostly used to prevent re-ignition.
If the temperature of a part of the battery cell starts to rise due to shock or defects in the battery, the thermal runaway phenomenon will spread to the surrounding area. “It is very important to quickly infiltrate the coolant to lower the temperature so that the heat is not transferred to the surrounding cells when fighting an electric vehicle fire,” said the representative. When firefighters at the scene of an electric vehicle fire spray water intensively on the underside of the vehicle or install a mobile water tank around the vehicle to submerge the vehicle, it is intended to lower the battery temperature.
The problem, however, is that the outer surface of the battery is sealed with metal to block out moisture vapor and dust. Kwon Woo-geun (68), head of the Remobility Research Institute and former member of the Agency for Defense Development, said, “We developed a system that sprays fire extinguishing agents directly inside the battery to lower the battery temperature more effectively than spraying fire extinguishing agents or water from the outside.”
![“We drilled through the bottom of the car to quickly put out the electric car fire.”[허진석의 톡톡 스타트업]](https://dimg.donga.com/wps/NEWS/IMAGE/2024/08/30/126769551.12.jpg "“We drilled through the bottom of the car to quickly put out the electric car fire.”[허진석의 톡톡 스타트업]")
The electric vehicle fire suppression device (portable type) made by Remobility looks like a low cart containing fire extinguishing agent. It is dragged to the vicinity of the burning electric vehicle and approaches the front or rear of the vehicle from a distance of about 10m in semi-autonomous driving. This is because smoke and flames are emitted from the sides. Then, the suppression device deploys a long extension module under the vehicle. The device that enters the vehicle bottom is equipped with an alloy penetration nozzle. It pierces the cover and battery case under the vehicle and sprays the fire extinguishing agent directly onto the battery at high speed.
Director Kwon said, “At first, it was a wide plate with about nine nozzles, but it was finally completed with a thin square module with two nozzles.” He added, “As a result of testing it on a model electric car as a research and development model, it was found that the temperature around the battery was lowered to 100-150 degrees Celsius, preventing the spread of fire.” It was developed for use in electric car charging stations and apartment parking lots.
The extinguishing agent was chosen based on a non-conductive reinforcing liquid series known to be effective against battery fires. It is a liquid that does not conduct electricity but has better penetrability than water, allowing it to lower battery temperatures more quickly. “There were cases where firefighters were electrocuted by the current from the battery when spraying water with a hose, so we needed a non-conductive substance, and we needed a substance with a better cooling effect than water,” said Director Kwon.
● Research on rapid fire detection system
The product registered as an innovative product by the Public Procurement Service is a fire extinguishing device that is towed by a vehicle on a larger scale. The representative said, “If the portable type is for one electric vehicle, the towable type can handle fires from two to three vehicles.” In the future, there are plans to create a fire truck exclusively for electric vehicles that combines an electric vehicle fire extinguishing agent and a device that can spray it on an existing fire truck.
In August of last year, LiMobility registered a patent for an ‘Electric Vehicle Battery Fire Extinguishing Device and System’, and in June of this year, it also registered a patent for a ‘Flame Retardant Screen for Fire Extinguishing Electric Vehicle Charging Stations’. If a fire breaks out in an electric vehicle while it is being charged, a flame retardant screen is spread from above and extinguishing fluid is sprayed from inside the flame retardant screen. This system traps the sprayed extinguishing fluid inside the flame retardant screen to form a tank, preventing the electric vehicle from igniting again.
To this end, a system that automatically detects emergency situations is also being studied. A heat detection sensor is installed on the floor of the parking lot, and combined with video surveillance, etc., it can detect electric vehicle fires early. “Existing fire detection sensors are located on the ceiling, so they tend to work only when there is a lot of fire or smoke,” said CEO Lee. “This is a system to detect fires more quickly.”
According to the National Fire Research Institute’s guide to responding to electric vehicle fires last year, the direction of flames in electric vehicle fires spreads quickly horizontally due to gas emissions, etc. When analyzing an accident where electric vehicles were charging side by side, the fire spread to the vehicle next to it in 1 minute and 15 seconds after the flames appeared in the vehicle on fire, and it only took 2 minutes for the fire to spread to the third vehicle. This is the background for the need for rapid fire detection.
● Constant interest in starting a business in the safety field
After studying mainly in the field of information and communication technology (ICT), this representative experienced various research and manufacturing technologies in the industry. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in information and computer engineering and information security engineering in 2001 and 2004, respectively, and later developed ICT solutions at several small and medium-sized companies. Before founding LiMobility, he also gained experience in overseeing the development of special vehicles at a company. He also received his master’s degree in business administration and his doctorate in engineering in 2010 and 2015, respectively. “My experience developing various sensor products, remote control solutions, and special vehicles based on information technology (IT) helped me develop plans for special vehicles for electric vehicle fire detection and electric vehicle fire suppression,” said this representative.
Among the many patents held by this representative are an IoT-integrated fire suppression device built into an electric vehicle charger and a fire extinguisher for small electrical installation spaces. Knowing that many fires occur in small spaces such as electric vehicle chargers, power distribution panels, and distribution boxes, this is a small fire extinguisher that automatically sprays extinguishing agents by detecting the temperature inside. It was abandoned in 2013, but is now being commercialized by LiMobility after securing additional patents.
“Quickly and safely dealing with electric vehicle fires with penetrating nozzles is just the beginning,” the representative said. “We want to create a company that continuously develops safety solutions that can increase urban safety, such as automatic flame retardant curtains for electric vehicle charging stations.”
2024-08-31 22:11:36