After thirty years of forbearance, sodium-ion batteries are finally going to be replaced by spare tires.

"Sodium chloride is a large component of seawater. What I extract from seawater is sodium, which can be used to generate electricity.

“Can sodium do that?

"Yes, sir. ...Sodium batteries have great energy, and their electric power is several times stronger than zinc batteries."

This is the dialogue between Captain Nemo and Professor Aronnax in the novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" by French writer Jules Verne. This novel, born in 1870, has already written about mankind's imagination of sodium batteries.

In reality, the emergence of sodium-ion batteries was delayed by almost a hundred years.

In 1976, Whittingham discovered that titanium disulfide (TiS2) can intercalate and deintercalate lithium ions (Li+) and produced a Li||TiS2 battery. The reversible deintercalation mechanism of sodium ions (Na+) in TiS2 was also discovered. .

In 1980, Armand proposed the concept of "Rocking Chair Battery". Lithium ions are like a rocking chair. The two ends of the rocking chair are the poles of the battery, and the lithium ions move back and forth on both ends of the rocking chair. Sodium-ion batteries have the same principle as lithium-ion batteries and are both called rocking chair batteries.

The principles are the same and they appeared almost at the same time, but the fate of the two brothers sodium-ion batteries and lithium-ion batteries is completely different.

By the 1980s, Delmas and Goodenough discovered that the layered oxide material NaMeO2 could be used as a cathode material for sodium-ion batteries. (Goodenough and Whittingham mentioned above both won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.) In 1988, Fouletier studied the sodium storage properties of soft carbon and graphite and initiated research on carbon negative electrode materials for sodium-ion batteries.

In 1990, Japan's Sony Corporation completed a breakthrough in the commercialization of lithium-ion batteries based on graphite anodes and put them on the market in May of the following year. Since then, lithium-ion batteries have ushered in their own era, while sodium-ion batteries have fallen into a long silence.

It was not until 2000 that Stevens and Dahn discovered that hard carbon materials have excellent sodium ion deintercalation properties, and the research on anode materials for sodium ion batteries took a major turn.

In 2015, the world's first 18650 cylindrical sodium-ion battery, developed by RS2E of France, was born. The energy density of the cell reached 90Wh/kg and the cycle life exceeded 2,000 times.

Since then, companies such as France's Tiamat, Britain's Faradion, the United States' Natron Energy, and China's Zhongke Hainan have all had their own research results in the field of sodium-ion batteries.

In June 2021, the world's first 1MWh sodium-ion battery energy storage system launched by Zhongke Haina was officially put into operation in Taiyuan, Shanxi.

Image source: Zhongke Haina

In July of the same year, CATL, the world's leader in power batteries, officially released sodium-ion batteries and made it clear that it had launched an industrial layout and that an industrial chain would be basically formed by 2023.

At that time, new energy vehicles were suffering from the high price of lithium carbonate, and sodium-ion batteries gave the industry an alternative that was within easy reach.

Although commercialization is almost 30 years later than lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries are still waiting for their time. Although it is late, it is not too late to arrive.

Covering diverse application scenarios

In terms of resource reserves, there is much more sodium than lithium on the earth. Sodium resources are very abundant, with a crustal abundance of 2.75%, ranking 6th; lithium's crustal abundance is only 0.0065%, ranking 27th.

Moreover, sodium is distributed all over the world, while 75% of lithium resources are concentrated in the Americas. So, the sodium supply chain is also more secure in comparison.

Because of the rich resources, the price of sodium is also very affordable, 2 yuan/kg. The price of lithium is 150 yuan/kg. The material cost of sodium-ion batteries is 30%-40% lower than that of lithium-ion batteries.

Image source: Zhongke Haina official website

In terms of positive electrode materials, sodium-ion batteries mainly have three routes: layered oxides, polyanionic compounds, and Prussian compounds; in terms of negative electrode materials, they are mainly carbon-based materials such as hard carbon and soft carbon.

On July 29, 2021, CATL released a sodium-ion battery. The positive electrode material uses Prussian white material with a high gram capacity, and the negative electrode material uses a hard carbon material with a unique pore structure. Based on breakthroughs in material systems, CATL’s first-generation sodium-ion battery cell has a single energy density of 160Wh/kg.

In December 2022, Everview Lithium Energy released a large cylindrical sodium-ion battery product. The positive electrode uses layered oxide and the negative electrode uses hard carbon. The energy density is 135Wh/kg and the number of cycles reaches 2,500 times.

Honeycomb Energy plans to complete the design and finalization of the second-generation sodium-ion battery product in the first quarter of 2023, with an energy density of 135Wh/kg, and plans to complete the development of a 160Wh/kg sodium-ion battery in the fourth quarter.

Because the energy density is between lead-acid batteries and lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries will be mainly used in two-wheeled electric vehicles, three-wheeled electric vehicles, low-speed electric vehicles, energy storage and new energy vehicles.

Zhongke Haina is leading the way in commercializing sodium-ion batteries. In 2018, the first sodium-ion battery low-speed electric vehicle was unveiled. In 2019, the first sodium-ion battery energy storage power station was launched. In 2021, 1MWh sodium-ion battery energy storage will be installed globally. The system was successfully put into operation.

In 2021, Sodium Innovation Energy first released the world's first sodium-ion battery-methanol reforming hydrogen production comprehensive energy system, and then jointly released the world's first sodium-ion battery-driven two-wheel electric vehicles with Emma Technology.

The "White Paper on the Development of China's Sodium-Ion Battery Industry (2023)" released by EVTank and Ivey Economic Research Institute proposes that the main shipment areas of sodium-ion batteries before 2025 will focus on small power represented by two-wheeled vehicles. After that, the application in the energy storage field will gradually increase, and sodium-ion batteries for energy storage will become the largest application scenario in 2026.

According to the "Twenty-Five Key Requirements for Preventing Electric Power Production Accidents (2022 Edition) (Draft for Comment)" issued by the National Energy Administration in June 2022, there are clear regulations on preventing fire accidents in electrochemical energy storage power stations, "medium and large-scale Electrochemical energy storage power stations are not allowed to use ternary lithium batteries and sodium-sulfur batteries, and it is not appropriate to use ladder-use power batteries."

This direction is very clear and is objectively beneficial to the application of sodium-ion batteries in the field of energy storage.

On the passenger car side, sodium-ion batteries generally can only meet the needs of lower-range models with a range of less than 400 kilometers. However, the AB battery solution officially announced by CATL can meet the needs of models with a range of 500 kilometers through the complementary advantages of lithium and sodium hybrids, and is "expected to cover about 65% of the pure electric passenger car market."

Entering a critical period for mass production

In 2022, Zhongke Haina will build 1,000-ton cathode and cathode material and 1GWh battery cell production lines for sodium-ion batteries in Taiyuan, Shanxi and Fuyang, Anhui, taking the lead in starting the road to industrialization.

It is worth mentioning that in March 2022, Huawei subscribed for approximately 4.13 million yuan through its subsidiary platform Hubble Investment to purchase nearly 13.3% of Zhongke Hainan's shares, becoming its third largest shareholder.

Entering 2023, more and more sodium-ion battery companies have announced their industrialization progress.

Image source: Sihao New Energy

On February 23, the industry's first sodium-ion battery prototype jointly built by Sihao New Energy and Zhongke Haina was publicly unveiled. The Sihao EX10 Huaxianzi was installed and tested. This sodium-electric model has a cruising range of 252km, a battery pack capacity of 25kWh, a cell energy density of 140Wh/kg, a system energy density of 120Wh/kg, and a fast charging time (SOC 10%-80%) of 20 minutes.

Li Shujun, general manager of Zhongke Haina, revealed in an interview with the media: "With the expansion of the industrial scale of sodium batteries, compared with lithium iron phosphate batteries, the industry generally believes that there will be a 20%-30% cell cost advantage. Of course, this The data is also related to the price of lithium carbonate, which may have a cost advantage of about 10%.”

On March 1, Funeng Technology announced that it has received a letter of appointment for EV3 sodium batteries from Jiangxi Jiangling Group New Energy Vehicle Co., Ltd. and will supply sodium-ion battery pack assemblies to it. It is expected to achieve mass production and installation in the second quarter of 2023.

In the annual report conference call on March 9, CATL stated that the company's sodium-ion battery is expected to be industrialized in 2023, and the specific scale depends on the progress of customer projects. Compared with lithium-ion batteries, the company's sodium-ion batteries "have obvious cost advantages now, and will have even more advantages when the supply chain matures."

On March 10, Duofludo stated on the investor interaction platform that the company’s sodium-ion battery products are now undergoing in-vehicle testing at multiple car manufacturers. By the end of 2023, the annual production capacity of sodium-ion batteries at the Henan base is expected to reach 1GWh. In addition to its own production of sodium-ion batteries, Duofuoduo already has a thousand-ton production capacity of sodium hexafluorophosphate and supplies it to external parties in batches.