I’ve been hearing about these for a few years now. Huge if they work out at a large scale.
I’ve been doing some looking into sodium ion batteries for the last couple of months and it sounds like it’s going to drastically reduce the price of batteries and sodium ion is more thermally stable and can handle cold temperatures of negative 40 and can handle hot temperatures.
I’m also hearing charge cycle counts around 10,000, which would be something like 20 years worth of battery usage.
The current downside is power density and even that is not terrible as it’s pretty close to what LFP does now and They think they can improve it more in the future.
Sodium ion is already being used in some mass market cars that don’t need an incredible range, but need to be economical.
Heck, if energy density is an issue the use this initially for grid storage, home solar, etc. where a larger size isn’t a huge deal. That would increase existing lithium ion supplies for EVs.
If it’s cheap and abundant enough you can have overcapacity and it easily lasts 30 years - which apparently is an important breakpoint for infrastructure project funding.
The article says that they contain NaCrO₂. That means that, by mass, they are 21% Na, 49% Cr, and 30% O. So I’m curious: why are they called sodium batteries, and not chromium batteries?
Presumably because Na+ ions are the active charge carriers.
By mass it would be mostly graphene or water batteries - like always
Is this the next big thing? Na. /j
Maybe they will make a potassium battery, K?
Maybe, but I want to see Uranium batteries go mainstream, how 'bout U?
Id prefer francium batteries, fr
Or gallium hydride? GaH.
Sodium-Ion is already in production at CATL. Been for about half a year if I recall. It’s slightly less dense than LFP but it’s cheaper and promises to get cheaper yet.
You’re right, they were making a pun about sodium’s chemical symbol.
Not who you replied to, but thanks for explaining! I saw the /j but still didn’t get it. I wasn’t a good chemistry student…
The 210Ah sodium-ion cells deliver up to 218Ah of discharge capacity.
WTF does that mean?
Either AI slop, someone fucked up the math for the capacity, or they’ve broken thermodynamics and are pulling power out of the ether.
First is most likely, 3rd is the coolest.
If only my other electronics operated at 104% efficiency.
It’s the world’s worst ZPM
Badly written, i suspect the cells are speecified to have about 210ah and a real test showed 218ah capacity. That would be pretty normal since you always have manufacturing tolerances. But i think in a good article they would have worded it better if thats the case since not all of these batterys will do 218ah.
Archive link: https://archive.ph/Xe3BU
https://interestingengineering.com/energy/unigrid-sodium-ion-battery-tech
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What is this shit? The page loads perfectly, then goes blank. They just fucking pretend to be broken because of some ad blocker or something. Why is the internet getting worse all the time. I don’t want you fucking layout, share buttons and other garbage.
I got the same error but hit reload and then it loaded fine.
Ah what the heck after the 5th time reloading it did work lol
Idk, sounds like a you problem fam.
Sorry for ranting lol. But it pisses me off especially when it comes from science news. Elsevier and sciencedirect is another service that blocks me, and I’m not even using a VPN or super secure browser.
Soon more and more webpages will only work with “authentic Chrome” or some shit, and block all VPNs. And then soon you’ll have to log into chrome. And that will create a permanent link with your government ID. I’m just tired of this predictable evil trajectory of technology. The internet was supposed to destroy tyranny, not join it!
I hear ya, it is fucking annoying.
Do you think this battery tech will be applied to portable power tools?
Afaik they are mostly intended for large scale grid storage where weight doesn’t matter. Or even efficiency, you can just add more super cheap solar panels. Their biggest advantage is longer lifespan though that makes them viable as a infrastructure project. Price and longevity is really all that matters for grid storage.
So they are a bit heavier than lithium ion batteries but could still work for many applications. Could be great for a solar powered catamaran for example. They are I think safer too.
PS: Actually I was thinking off the “sodium iron pyrophosphate (NFPP)” battery from CATL (see this video), but I think they are comparable.
Nope. Too heavy for the power capacity.
While I get that this is the narrative, people are overstating this case. High end sodium batteries have a similar energy density range to lower end lithium batteries (~150-175 wh/kg). This idea that people wouldn’t buy a battery that is cheaper, safer, and has a much longer cycle life if it weighs a bit more or only runs 80% as long between the faster charges is puzzling at best.
They have less density than Li ion because of their honeycomb structure. They may have the same output per weight, but they have more volume.
Any info about energy density?
According to Wikipedia:
Looks like power to weight it much higher, while energy per volume and energy per mass is comparable to existing lithium ion batteries.
idk about that, the regularly cited reason Na-ion batteries are mainly being looked at for grid storage rather than vehicle applications is their bad Wh/l and W/kg numbers compared to Li-ion. the table in the Na-ion article seems to use “1000W/kg” without a source, and it shows lithium as being about a third of that even though the Li-ion article quotes figures up to 10kW/kg.
seems the editors of the two articles aren’t cross-checking eachother.
