Consortium to Research and Help Produce Sodium-Ion Batteries

­What if the next big battery innovation had something in common with a regular food additive (in the name, anyway)? A consortium of 15 companies and universities, led by German’s Varta, have initiated a project to research and develop sodium-ion batteries.  

ENTISE (“Entwicklung der Natrium-Ionen-Technologie für Industriell Skalierbare Energiespeicher,” or “Development of Sodium Ion Technology for Industrially Scalable Energy Storage”) has vowed to “develop industrially usable, high-performance and environmentally friendly [sodium-ion battery] cells.

Indeed, sodium is readily available, inexpensive, safe, and can be disposed of easily…at least in theory. While development for sodium-ion batteries goes all the way back to the ‘70s and ‘80s, lithium-ion batteries won the commercialization battle and went on to dominate everything from portable electronics to electric vehicles.

But lithium-ion batteries have some glaring downsides – like requiring critical minerals like cobalt, graphite, and lithium. And not only do despotic nations dominate rare-Earth metal production – like China, which leads the world – but any sort of disruption in the supply chain (which again, involves several global rivals) can be catastrophic for the battery market.

On the other hand, sodium-ion batteries use the infinitely more abundant Na and iron-based materials. And the cost per kilowatt-hour for Na+ batteries is, at least in theory, far cheaper than their lithium-ion cousins.

The downside? Na+ batteries have much lower energy density, and at least as of yet, the cell chemistry hasn’t been transferred to functional cell formats.

"For the German battery community, this project represents amilestone in the development of sustainable sodium-ion batteries. In order to further advance the future of decentralized energy storage and use, other innovative and powerful storage technologies are needed in addition to lithium-ion technology,” said Rainer Hald, CTO of VARTA AG. “In addition to existing technologies, sodium-ion batteries can make an important, sustainable contribution to the decarbonization and electrification of many areas.”

The project will start on June 1st and run for three years.