Will China pull ahead with battery expertise? | Reworking Industry

Chinese electric cars are making headlines again because some of them are running on batteries made of salt well that's what's being reported at least until now lithium has been the key ingredient in ecar batteries but it's difficult and expensive to obtain but salt AKA sodium isn't I really can see these headlines in front of me our.

Sodium iion batteries the lithium killer does China's Head Start mean they'll rule the market again or do companies in Europe stand a chance of competing welcome to this episode of transforming business lithium is an Ultra Light Element that's become an integral part of Battery Technology but it's relatively difficult and expensive to.

Procure extraction methods vary depending on where it comes from the three biggest producers are Australia Chile and China until now China is by far the largest battery producer we're going to need more battery capacity in the next few decades not just for our smartphones laptops and electric cars but to store wind and solar energy the.

Market will probably not only double until 2030 it's probably times five more like this Martin o shots is a professor for the chemistry of energy materials at the University of Yen Germany relying on lithium alone won't won't cut it the world will need every option available and that's where sodium ion batteries come into the picture so let's take a.

Look at that element beneath the earth's crust sodium is abundant making up around 2.3% it might not sound like much but that's over 1,000 times more the amount of lithium found under the Earth's crust not only is it more readily available but it's also cheaper in early 2024 sodum carbonate was valued at.

Approximately $290 per metric ton battery grade lithium carbonate was more than $133,000 per metric ton and lithium batteries need precious materials like Cobalt and nickel to work but sodium doesn't it's found everywhere it's simply salt and not limited to a specific.

Region the world's largest battery manufacturer Chinese catl already went big on sodium ion technology in 2021 just 2 years later it was supplying Chinese car maker Sherry with salt batteries and recently this ecar type from jaac group's yway was in the spotlight Reports say that some of the.

Cars from this model are powered by a sodium battery this probably means that in some Chinese cities tiny salt powered ecars are already in use though we weren't able to find any further information or figures on how many of them at the moment I think China is leading to race one should never give up.

Uh but we have this technology sooner or later with us also I think but now uh it's in China and we have to close to get but what does that mean for the big lithium producers Chile Bolivia and Argentina they constitute what's known as a lithium triangle because together they own about 53% of lithium reserves worldwide does the invention of sodium.

Batteries threaten their Turf we tend to compare lithium ion and sodium ion technology as competitors and I really can see these headlines in front of me our sodium iion batteries the lithium killer this is Alexander bul he's a battery cell development manager at ultris he and William work for a Swedish sodium ion battery startup.

Located about an hour's drive from Stockholm in a city called Upsala he tells us that his entry into the sodium ion battery sector started by accident during his postar we were producing so much blue Powder that there was blue all over the walls and all over the fum hoods and the University was getting upset at us here's how sodium.

Ion batteries are made first this bright blue Powder is made made into a slurry and then coated onto aluminum foil it's dried in a big machine like this one and then compressed on a machine like this the excess is trimmed away with a laser cutter all these black squares are stacked together before going into a hermetically sealed glove box here and.

Where electrolytes are added under a controlled environment then it's just a matter of testing the battery one of the arguments for sodium ion batteries is that they can cycle more which means they can be used and recharged and use again more than lithium ion batteries talking about lifetime here we have to of course also.

Talk about in what applications are they being used for example portable Electronics a person is very happy if you can charge and discharge your a mobile phone for more than a thousand times without losing a lot of capacity and what about cars remember the headline that Chinese ecars are powered by sodium ion batteries can't the.

Technology be scaled up with lith amine batteries we we have a great product Market fit for especially electric vehicles and this is also where we see that sodium mind batteries will have a hard time mainly because there is an inherently lower energy density to the technology this is Andreas H from the Swedish firm northfold a big lithium ion.

Battery producer in Europe it works with all ultris and sodium ion battery development and production and wants to reach full-scale production by the end of the decade the hardest part about fighing Battery Technology is actually not making one good battery in in a laboratory it's to produce a million of those including the supply chain of it.

Including the the the Giga factors that you need to build but why is China so far ahead experts say that while Europe has been researching sodium ion batteries for longer China actually commercialized them earlier and got a head start of at least 3 or 4 years one of the main hurdles they face is weight they tend to be heavier than lithium ion.

Batteries the physical dimensions uh will be a little bit larger and so these are the main drawbacks of the of sodium versus lithium it's the weight it's the volume the energy density is therefore a little bit lower uh compared to to lithium William estimates that they're about half as powerful as their lithium counterparts in terms of generating.

Power this isn't a problem for small cars like those now used in China but for bigger EVS meant to drive longer distances larger and heavier batteries are needed with the sodum batteries we think that first in the energy storage system uh Market where we have you know 20 foot containers that are basically just being.

Placed next to renewable energy assets and uh substation we're talking about stationary energy storage battery driven Industrial Equipment such such as Warehouse Machinery forklifts and so on and while the production of sodium ion batteries is slowly getting underway the market for lithium ion batteries is booming one estimate puts the market.

Value of sodium ion batteries at $920 million Us by 2030 by comparison lithium ion batteries' market value is expected to grow to over 270 billion us we will probably at least in the next 20 years have not had the situation that so many sodium ion batteries are made that lithium ion battery production is decreasing maybe they are closing the G.

But a decline lithium iron battery production at the moment is not under Verizon in my opinion the two technologies are similar in many ways something battery makers have realized many lithium battery producers have started investing in sodium I believe rather than viewing lithium ion and sodium ion as.

Competitors it would be more accurate to see them as a part of a larger landscape and energy storage solutions so what does China's Head Start mean for other companies trying to enter the market can they compete the fact is that China is a forerunner in the production of electric vehicles and car batteries and it's already begun.

Commercializing sodium ion batteries sodium is cheaper and available in larger quantities than lithium but sodium ion batteries are bigger and heavier European companies are working on a viable product but experts say that China is at least 3 to four years ahead we will probably know in a few decades how successful they.

Were and with sodium ion batteries will dominate the market or be used alongside lithium ones what do you think let us know in the comments

Sharing is caring!