How Far Is Sodium-ion On The Road To Real Commercialization?

As we all know, the lithium-ion battery industry, including lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium, will usher in a round of significant growth in 2022. Taking power batteries, the core components of new energy vehicles, as an example, according to the general analysis data of various institutions, general power batteries occupy 40% to 60% of the total cost of the vehicle, while lithium carbonate accounts for about 10% to 15% of the total cost of the power battery. This is the direct result of two main reasons based on the urgent need for green transformation of sustainable development around the world and the maturity of industry technology.

Industry Agglomeration

Relevant statistics show that there are nearly 200 companies engaged in sodium battery-related businesses. Among these companies, lithium batteries are mostly cross-border. In addition, around some scientific research institutes, a group of emerging companies in the sodium-ion battery industry chain have also emerged. Judging from this situation, on the one hand, it shows that sodium-ion battery technology is worth looking forward to and may have a place in the future. But on the other hand, the “wait and see attitude” of the market also indirectly shows that there are still many difficulties in the sodium battery industry that need to be broken through.

Technology maturity needs to be improved

From the perspective of technical homology, the principle performance of sodium-ion batteries and lithium-ion batteries is very close. Similarly, three main technical routes have evolved around different cathode materials. Moreover, a number of business representatives spoke at the meeting and said that sodium-ion batteries with different cathode material systems have different application scenarios.

For example, the battery cycle life of the polyanionic compound cathode material system is relatively long, the BOM cost is relatively low, and it is suitable for large-scale energy storage.

The layered oxide system has high energy density, has the advantages of fast charging, high and low temperature charging and discharging performance, and is more suitable for new energy passenger cars, tricycles, two-wheelers and other markets. For example, UPS requires high-rate discharge in a short period of time, and sodium-ion batteries have the performance of high-rate discharge, which can help reduce the cost of UPS in communication base stations and other fields.

He Penglin, deputy director of the Safety Center of the China Institute of Electronic Technology Standardization, also said that according to the test data of dozens of sodium-ion batteries in China, sodium-ion batteries are safe, low-temperature and high-temperature. The advantages in power usage are significant, but at the same time he also pointed out that increasing energy density without reducing safety is a top priority.

In addition, the technical route of Prussian white and Prussian blue cathode materials is currently the most cost-effective, but the difficulty is that crystal water is difficult to remove, and such materials will release toxic gases such as cyanide during the manufacturing process, and the environmental risk is relatively large. Therefore, there are great obstacles in market application.

On the whole, in fact, there are still many difficulties in the industrialization of sodium-ion batteries, but it is precisely because the technology needs to be broken through urgently that industrialization investment and technical background strength are particularly important. In the second Na-ion battery industrialization and standard forum, a total of 21 models from 17 units passed the evaluation of the first batch of Na-ion batteries in the country.

Industry standards urgently need to be unified

“Standards are a core competitiveness of the country. At present, the standards of the sodium battery industry are blank in the world. This is a very good opportunity for us.” Li Jinghong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that in terms of energy storage technology, China is the world leader Nei did it from running to leading. In the initial stage of sodium batteries, the establishment of standards is crucial to the development of the industry.

1) Battery cycle life is a mystery

In the past year, there have been news about breakthroughs in the cycle life of sodium batteries. However, some people in the industry told Polaris Energy Storage Network that there may be “moisture” in this public cycle life figure. “What we call the battery cycle life should have certain boundary conditions. Different voltage ranges and monomer capacities have a great impact on the test results of the battery cycle life.”

It is understood that in different voltage ranges, the cycle life of sodium batteries tested is very different. For example, in the normal voltage range of 2.0V to 4.0V, the cycle life of sodium batteries is very poor; and when the voltage is controlled between 2.5V and 3.9V, its cycle life may show an order of magnitude improvement. Moreover, small batteries are generally used in laboratory tests. Once the size of the battery is enlarged for actual market applications, its cycle life is far from the same.

2) Product performance is unstable

On the other hand, some people in the industry also said that due to the incompleteness of the relevant standards for anode materials for sodium batteries, the industry has not yet formed a stable industrial chain supply chain system. Sodium carbonate supplied by different upstream suppliers or different batches of the same manufacturer, its There may be large differences in product specifications and quality, which in turn will affect the quality and performance of subsequent cathode materials and even finished sodium-ion batteries.

At present, some suppliers have formed a close cooperative relationship with sodium-ion battery manufacturers in the R&D and production stages, so as to ensure the stability of the quality and performance of the final sodium-ion battery.

3） Market application lacks guarantee

In addition, at the sodium-ion battery forum, Tai Feng, director of the China Civil Aviation Dangerous Goods Transportation Management Center, called for the formulation of standards for sodium-ion battery shipping. According to him, currently there is a standard for carrying lithium batteries in the aviation industry, but there is no standard for carrying sodium batteries. The reason is that there was no concept of sodium-ion batteries when the standards were formulated. Perhaps, this situation is not an exception, and it may also be common in other application fields.

The various pain points in the current sodium battery industry are actually accelerating the industry’s breakout trend. The current market continues to heat up, attracting more capital to intervene, which will accelerate breakthroughs in technology and production capacity. It is believed that through the combination of capital and industry-university-research, the process of sodium-ion battery research and development to industrialization and commercialization can be rapidly promoted.

At the sodium-ion battery forum, several speakers predicted that in 2024, sodium-ion batteries may usher in large-scale applications, especially breakthroughs in the energy storage application market, and in 2025, the cost of sodium-ion batteries will drop significantly.

The commercialization of sodium-ion batteries is near!

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