Sodium ion batteries: Yet another innovation poised to be dominated by China
- Reference: 1717672453
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/06/06/sodium_ion_batteries_china/
- Source link:
Shazan Siddiqi, senior technology analyst at IDTechEx, who recently wrote a report on sodium ion battery (SiB) production, told The Register next-gen SiBs with improved [1]life cycles and higher energy densities over previous generations are on their way to market – though not in or from the West.
"The blunt truth … is that China is leading the race to sodium ion commercialization," Siddiqi told us in an interview you can replay below. "They have over 50 companies that are in the lab stage, and then there's probably about five to eight companies who are ready to commercialize … in the next few years."
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[3]Youtube Video
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"We're just not seeing those sorts of numbers in the Western world, whether that's in Europe or the US," he added.
Of course, that doesn't mean SiBs are soon to be ubiquitous. Siddiqi doesn't think they'll replace lithium ion batteries in most of our consumer electronics or electric cars, and will likely land in low-speed micro vehicles and other products. They're also likely to generally replace lead acid batteries, he added.
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Regardless, it's going to take years for the West to catch up with China's development of a tech designed to help the West escape its dependency on Chinese-mined lithium, he told The Register .
"The tale itself is really quite ironic if you think about it," Siddiqi said. You can catch our whole interview in the video above. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/15/boffins_bust_sodium_ion_battery/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZmHdIkdRZdOUwTsrbFtQCQAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://youtu.be/L4qs_iImjLA
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZmHdIkdRZdOUwTsrbFtQCQAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZmHdIkdRZdOUwTsrbFtQCQAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: New tech
True, but now I understand why they're trying to own more of the sodium ions in the "China Sea" and occupy Formosa (and the Pilipinas next).
Re: New tech
Correct, take that claim with a pinch of salt..
:)
Written while listening to to "Burning Down the House" by Talking Heads
David Banner wants to know, when will we have potassium batteries!
Sodium burns with a bright yellow flame in water/air. But potassium is so much cooler with its purple (and UV-C) flame in water/air. Oh and it is radioactive (0.01% potassium-40), Who does not love the idea of walking about with a concentrated personal gamma ray source in their handheld devices. Which reminds me, it is probably time for a banana - I feel like I am low in potassium!
Na Ion Battery surely
S is sulphur
Re: Na Ion Battery surely
and Si is silicon so from a chemistry point of view this look like Silicon Boride (albeit unbalanced).
Re: Na Ion Battery surely
and Si is Silicon...
"SiB Battery" sounds like it should be made of Silicon Boride..
But maybe i'm just being a Boron Git
Move along here, nothing to see
China is probably leadng overall on batteries – it saw both the need and the opportunity years ago – but it's not the only game in town. Japan also has advanced Na-Ion batteries and Northvolt in Sweden is also producing them. They are heavier than Li-Ion but have several significant advantages: they are much cheaper and easier to make and last longer and have technically greater energy density, though this depends a bit on how you measure i. This makes them ideal for stationary backup storage such as for power. At the same time, the additional weight makes them less suited for mobility or consumer devices but that's okay if demand for lithium for domestic and industrial installation decreases. Long term you have to hope someone cracks (sic) hydrocarbon fuel cells.
Re: Move along here, nothing to see
Others can manufacture these batteries too, but this is all about cost, and cost is about scale. While Northvolt is producing its first cells and companies in Japan and "the West" still have to convince investors and governments about the viability of their products, the Chinese have already ramped up to tens of megawatthours of installed SiB grid storage.
This means their supply logistics are also already up to scale, and development and shipment of their first generation of products based on SiB has already been completed. They can sell their products to other countries right now.
Re: Move along here, nothing to see
Not just grid storage. BYD is already building sodium ion battery factories that will start making sodium batteries for its cars. That's only going to increase their price competitiveness and given BYD cars have a standardized blade battery it would likely be easy to roll out across their existing models so I can see them rushing that out. While the west ums over it being "inferior" to li-ion china is going to show them otherwise. Then we'll have to claim na-ion is a security risk and we need to ban it :D
China Singing
Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye
New tech
At least no-one should be able to complain that China is monopolising the sources of sodium for the batteries...