EVAC-Integrated Battery Containment System

The global energy paradigm is currently in the midst of an energy transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. In both the private and public sectors, battery energy storage systems (BESS), comprised of high power and energy-density Li-ion batteries, offer the potential for numerous benefits for a variety of commercial and military applications. However, recent failures involving Li-ion BESS have brought safety concerns to the forefront of the industry. These safety concerns not only affect the private sector, but also the military. In particular, safety concerns may limit location and usage of BESS on military assets, such as ships, and in permanent and forward bases, and can adversely affect military readiness by harming personnel, warfighters, equipment and other assets. In shipboard BESS applications, the release of  flammable gases can contribute to increased fire spread and toxic release, which can not only pose hazards to sailors, but also damage critical shipboard equipment. At worst, severe BESS fires on Navy ships can incapacitate the crew and render equipment or the ship inoperable, and adversely affect the Navy’s readiness and lethality in theater. Altect’s TRAPS technology is specifically designed to eliminate the hazard and has significant advantages over existing solutions. Common fire protection strategies allow flammable gases to ignite before intervening to mitigate the event. Altect’s approach, however, is to address the source of the hazard by neutralizing the flammable gases released by the battery preventing the ignition from occurring and eliminating the fire hazards all together. The overall goal of Phase I is to design a Battery Containment System (BCS) concept that integrates Altect’s TRAPS technology to contain, control and mitigate BESS failures. In Phase I, Altect will determine the feasibility of a TRAPS enabled BCS using a suite of advanced computational modeling techniques.