Ann: AI tech to expand seaweed R&D into battery industries, page-8

Pass the salt: Here’s how sodium-ion batteries could topple lithium demand forecasts

• Sodium ion is the only viable EV battery chemistry that doesn’t need lithium
• Cons: slower charging, lower energy density; Pros: cheaper, safer, longer lasting vs lithium-ion
• Sodium-ion battery buildouts now appearing at pace, with CATL, BYD and Northvolt at the forefront
• Could represent half the Chinese domestic EV market by 2030:

The giant killer

There is one real threat to lithium demand outlook; sodium ion, or Na-ion, currently the only viable chemistry that does not contain lithium.
Sodium-ion is cheaper, safer, longer lasting, and better in cold temps than lithium-ion but, like LFP, ostensibly suffers from a slower charge rate and lower energy density.
Not so good for those long trips down the coast, but ideal for a suburban run-around.
Still in its infancy, sodium-ion battery buildouts are now being announced at pace, as prophesied in January by BloombergNEF’s Top 10 Energy Storage Trends in 2023.
“An alternative to lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion battery technology offers could alleviate battery-market pressures — and potentially push down costs — as soon as 2026,” it said.
“For 2023, we speculate that at least one major battery manufacturer will come out with a significant sodium-ion battery product roadmap announcement.”
Three months later battery behemoth CATL said its sodium-ion batteries – unveiled mid 2021 – would make their debut in Chery Auto’s EVs.
CATL, which also sells batteries to all the major Western carmakers, including Tesla, Volkswagen, Nissan, and Ford, says sodium-ion battery manufacturing “is perfectly compatible with the lithium-ion battery production equipment and processes”.
“The production lines can be rapidly switched to achieve a high-production capacity,” it says.
Last week, the world’s leading EV maker BYD inked a contract for a new US$1.4bn, 30GWh sodium-ion battery plant, the largest in the world.
Sweden’s Northvolt also announced it had developed a sodium ion cell with an energy density similar to LFP cells, with plans underway to set up Europe’s first pilot plant.

BP8 Massive demand potential supplier for Sodium ion Batteries

Examples of recently published studies include the improvement made by added cellulose micromaterials to battery separators in sodium-metal batteries and to a prototype battery electrode made from a combination of silicon and a seaweed-derived alginate which improved the electrode’s elasticity and ability to store energy. The Company regards itself as a potential supplier of essential minerals, including these seaweed-derived cellulose micromaterials and alginates, to the current and emerging battery technology and battery manufacturing industries.

Na-ion and Li-on: Complimentary or cannibalistic?

Sodium-ion represents a near term solution to those battery metal deficits, which are expected to put a substantial dent in EV forecasts.
Fastmarkets is forecasting the technology to make up 9% of global EV sales by 2033.
BloombergNEF has predicted sodium to take market share at the cheapest, lowest-range end of the car market in China, where LFP dominates.
By 2035 it could displace about 272,000 tons of lithium – about 7% of the total market that year, it says. The switch to sodium-ion could be even more if aggressive lithium shortages emerge, removing up to 37% LCE out of a global demand by 2035.
That’s equivalent to 1.4Mt LCE.
Analyst George Heppel arguably goes further, claiming sodium-ion could represent half the Chinese domestic EV market – which accounted for 60% of global sales in 2022 — by the end of the decade.
That’s huge.