Fire safety, tailor-made protection
Equans is a specialist in sprinklers, which protect factories from the risk of fire. But because of their complexity, their highly technical nature, and the risks associated with battery production, gigafactories cannot be protected by sprinklers alone.
The main danger concerns a spontaneous fire in one or more cells. This could lead to the production of a large quantity of heat outside the battery and spread at high speed. In this case, the battery components create a chain reaction, causing a highly reactive fire that's difficult to control.
One of Equans' specialties is to provide a complete service, from the analysis of each site by design offices, to the construction and maintenance of an installation consisting of a series of fire detection and automatic extinguishing devices : extinguishing gases (inert or inhibiting) to lower oxygen content and modify the chemical reaction of combustion; automatic detectors for smoke, heat, flames, particle counting, etc. and thermographic cameras to identify a heat source.
This equipment is connected to a control center which also manages all the appropriate warning systems to trigger the fastest possible response from fire-fighting resources.
Equans' historic know-how
Meeting the challenges of energy efficiency and new regulations requires the implementation of concrete solutions, like those deployed by Equans: energy recovery wherever possible, the most appropriate energy choices, high-performance heat pumps, LED lighting, renewable energies, centralized and combined energy production...
The company is able to support its customers in their energy production, transmission and distribution infrastructures.
With proven skills in the design and construction of high-voltage lines and transformer substations, building electrification, installation of network backup solutions and maintenance. Equans offers the full range of low-voltage and high-voltage solutions.
Contributing to a greener industrial process
The challenge of energy optimization is crucial for the development of electric mobility, but also for the energy transition and for questions of profitability.
Today, around 50 kWh are needed to produce 1 kWh of battery. Similarly, gigafactories are particularly energy-intensive, with installed electrical capacities of 100 to 150 MW, equivalent to tens of millions of euros of energy consumption every year.
For Equans, meeting this challenge requires involvement as far upstream as possible in the customer's master plan. And this, in order to conduct a precise analysis to design and implement energy performance solutions.
In addition to the question of renewable energies, an interesting source of savings and efficiency relies on recovered energies.
With a global approach to utilities, it is possible to take a detailed look at both energy requirements and the potential for reusing the heat generated by one of these processes to supply part of the site's needs.
“ CHANGE PERSPECTIVE ”
Actually, the Capex approach is favored in tenders for the construction of gigafactories, so delivery price remains the number 1 criterion, to the detriment of operating costs (Opex). It would take a real revolution to replace the focus on investment with the overall cost or TCO
(Total Cost of Ownership) integrating operating costs (energy consumption + maintenance) and investment costs.
This is all the more relevant as the coating and drying operations for electrode production alone account for almost a third of a gigafactory's energy consumption. Powering the anhydrous and clean rooms is the other main energy consumption item, before final battery preparation (forming & aging). The potential for energy recovery between the high-temperature effluents of the drying process and the regeneration needs of the desiccant wheels is one of the ways of improving energy performance in the battery manufacturing process. It is also a climatic and economic challenge, all the more so as energy costs are set to rise in the years ahead.
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“ THE EQUANS SOLUTION? ”
Equans offers a holistic approach to Gigafab design, with involvement at the earliest stage of preliminary design; only then can the relevant energy and technical choices be made and become cost-effective, and the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) approach can help the customer make informed decisions
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