Protection of Battery Energy Storage Systems
For BESS in Buildings
less water compared to traditional systems
BESS containers with one FOGTEC pump system
Fires of batteries are different to any other fires. Thus such fires must be treated in a specific way. Traditional safety concepts will not provide adequate and safe protection.
“H3” FOGTEC’s LiSa (Lithium Ion Battery Safety) concept
The fundamental difference with batteries are the off gases produced by the thermal runaway of one or more battery cells. These gases are toxic, corrosive, flammable and explosive. FOGTEC’s protection concept for BESS foresees the use of highly sensitive FOGTEC LiSaPro-Sens sensors detecting in most cases off gases at an early phase even before a fire or an explosion has occurred. This allows the control unit to stop any charging or operation of the BESS to slow down or prevent the thermal runway.
See for details on the LiSaPro-Sens products
Following the detection of off gases the room in which the BESS is located will ventilated through specially designed LiSaPro ventilation devices, which can be of active or passive type. This step is adamant to prevent the build-up of highly explosive off gas clouds.
LiSaPro Cool water mist nozzles will be activated after smoke or heat, indicating a fire, have been detected. Specially designed FOGTEC water mist nozzles create a specific droplet size distribution to rapidly absorb major parts of the heat, to suppress the fire and to wash out toxic and corrosive parts of the smoke and off gases.
Note: The use of fire suppressions systems based on chemical or inerting gases or on aerosols may result severe danger since the required heavy ventilation may prevent the keeping of the required concentration of the suppression agent.
FOGTEC is continuously carrying out intensive research work since over the last almost 10 year. This especially includes FOGTEC’s involvement in the series of SUVEREN research projects, including SUVEREN, SUVEREN_Climate, SUVEREN_4_Depots, SUVEREN_Storage and SUVEREN2use.
For details see www.SUVEREN-NEC.info and www.SUVEREN2use.de
Parts of these projects have been supported by the German government.
FAQ – Fire Protection in BESS in Buildings
Why is gas detection so essential?
In many cases off gases are occurring substantially earlier than a fire in a BESS. Off gas detection often allows to act quickly and to avoid the worst.
Why not using a “dry” gas or aerosol system for fire suppression?
E.g. Nitrogen or chemical gases do not allow to substantially ventilate the protected space. Thus, clouds of highly explosive off gases will be the result.
Additionally FOGTEC water mist is heaving a much higher cooling effect.
Why is the smoke washing effect of FOGTEC water mist so important?
Off gases and the smoke of BESS fires contain substantial amounts of hydrogen fluoride, heavy metals and acids. Any reduction in these can drastically reduce the risk for people and the damage to property.
Can water mist also be applied to protect other parts of a building or container with BESS?
FOGTEC water mist can ideally be used to protect a large number of other areas such as electrical devices, data centres, transformers, storage areas etc. See for details LINK FIXED SYSTEMS.