Lithium News

As Tesla (TSLA) continues to report its earnings for Q2 2022, Tuesday’s call briefly turned towards the topic of lithium. As the company acknowledges the rise in lithium costs, company founder Elon Musk has started urging entrepreneurs to dive into the lithium refining market, noting that it is a “license to print money.”

“I’ll say this once again,” Musk said during the Tesla Q2 2022 earnings call, “Entrepreneurs, enter the lithium refining business. You can’t lose.”

During Tuesday’s call, Tesla CFO Zack Kirkhorn noted that the cost of lithium has risen significantly. With that in mind, Kirkhorn noted that Tesla has begun working on lithium refining in-house. Musk previously floated out the idea of Tesla directly going into lithium mining as a response to rising costs.

While the Tesla reps on today’s call expressed an expectation that inflation will decline before the end of the year, Musk remarked on the benefits of lithium refinement. Lithium is a precious metal that not only makes up some of the material in Tesla’s electric vehicle batteries, but is also used in a bulk of tech products. In April, Tesla reported that nearly half of its vehicles were produced with lithium iron phosphate battery packs in an effort to combat nickel and cobalt shortages.

“Lithium ion battery cell supply is the fundamental constraint for the global transition to sustainable energy,” Musk added during the call.

Tuesday’s Tesla Q2 2022 earnings call has addressed a variety of topics, including the company’s crypto holdings and the current status of the Cybertruck. Be sure to follow Shacknews’ continuing Tesla coverage for the latest updates.

Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs released a report claiming that the world will soon see an “oversupply” of the metals needed to manufacture the lithium-ion batteries that will power electric vehicles and facilitate a greener economy. Industry experts and consultants disagreed and soon after unleashed a storm of criticism rebutting the report: There is no imminent surplus of the battery materials—metals like nickel, cobalt, and lithium—but a looming shortage, they said.

“I think one of the critical things that was maybe misunderstood by this report … is [that] there’s a very big difference between capacity and true supply,” James Mills, a consultant at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence—a market intelligence and price reporting agency critical of the Goldman report—told The Dispatch. “As a Chinese chemical producer, I can develop additional capacity to produce the final chemical materials. However, that capacity is never going to run at 100 percent utilization, especially during that ramp up period.”

The Biden administration has often voiced its support for moving the U.S. economy toward more sustainable sources of energy. On his first day in office, President Joe Biden rejoined the Paris Agreement, an international climate action plan from which the Trump administration had withdrawn the U.S. in 2020. Biden campaigned on “an equitable clean energy future,” and, after clinching the election, announced that former Secretary of State John Kerry would serve his administration in the newly created role of special presidential envoy for climate. “Today’s clean energy technologies are a critical part of the arsenal we must harness to lower energy costs for families, reduce risks to our power grid, and tackle the urgent crisis of a changing climate,” the administration said in a June statement.

In a 2022 report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that simply maintaining existing policies worldwide would still lead to a 3.2-degree Celsius increase in average global temperatures by 2100 above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900), far more than the 1.5-degree goal set by the 2015 Paris Agreement to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

How do lithium-ion batteries fit into larger ambitions for a green energy future?

Put simply, all renewable energy—whether solar, wind, hydroelectric, or anything else—needs to be stored, and lithium-ion batteries have become an important solution to that problem. They are perhaps best known for powering electric vehicles.

Lithium-ion batteries have a high energy density—they store a lot of energy for their size and weight—and they’re easier than previous battery technologies to discharge and charge, Daniel Schwartz, director of the Clean Energy Institute at the University of Washington, told The Dispatch.

“They’ve been the battery of preference for consumer electronics, for mobile devices where you want more energy packed into a small package,” Schwartz said.

Lithium-ion batteries consist of four major parts: a cathode, an anode, an electrolyte, and a separator. The cathode is often composed of a combination of metals such as nickel, cobalt and lithium; the anode is typically graphite; a lithium-salt solution makes up the electrolyte; and the separator is plastic. (Sometimes the electrolyte and separator are described together as one component.)

These batteries discharge energy as lithium ions move through the electrolyte from the anode to the cathode. The separator keeps the cathode apart from the anode, while allowing ions to pass through the electrolyte. An external energy source can recharge a discharged battery, bringing the lithium ions back to the anode to begin again.

Nickel and graphite are extracted through underground or surface mining. Cobalt is mostly produced as a by-product of processing other minerals, such as nickel.

Lithium is typically extracted in one of two ways. The first, traditional hard-rock mining, entails digging into the earth in search of the mineral spodumene, which contains lithium. The second, brine extraction, involves pumping underground lithium-rich saltwater to the surface and letting it evaporate, then processing what is left behind.

So, will the world have the battery metals needed to keep up with growing demand from the clean energy sector?

The strain on supply that Mills and others warned about might already be making itself known. Lithium prices are up a whopping 434 percent year-over-year, according to Trading Economics.

Mills also pointed to another issue overlooked by the Goldman analysis: Much of the market for these minerals consists of long-term contracts between suppliers and buyers, some with fixed prices and some with variable prices. This factor makes quick adjustments to prices and supply unlikely. “It’s very difficult to say, ‘Right, I’m going to produce this material, and I’ll sell it to a spot market [a market in which commodities and payment are exchanged immediately].’”

“Certainly to fix a problem in 12 months’ time is impossible,” Mills added, although he assessed that supply could catch up to demand later this decade.

Even before backlash to the Goldman report brought shortages to the forefront, experts worried about an undersupply of the metals needed for lithium-ion batteries. “I take everybody’s gigawatt-hour projections and take them back to the lithium required to do it, and most of them are so far over what the lithium industry can supply,” industry expert Joe Lowry, also known as “Mr. Lithium,” told Bloomberg in April.

But as experts warn that the world is not producing enough of the battery metals to keep pace with the next few years of demand, some observers have raised concerns about what is already being produced.

“Cobalt is a conflict mineral—it’s a mineral where human rights and working practices are not ideal for where it’s extracted,” Schwartz said. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) supplied over 70 percent of the world’s cobalt in 2021 and holds nearly half of the world’s reserves, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Of particular concern are the DRC’s artisanal mines, small-scale operations responsible for 20 percent of the country’s cobalt output. They’re known for their hazardous working conditions and for employing child labor.

But Schwartz told The Dispatch that advances in the field were moving the technology away from its heavy reliance on cobalt. Cobalt, Schwartz said, “was quite prevalent in the positive electrode—the cathode—of lithium-ion batteries, but now we’ve eliminated about 90 percent of it from the typical battery electrodes that are going into vehicles.”

Obtaining other minerals, such as lithium, poses different problems. In the “Lithium Triangle”—which includes parts of Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia—the metal is extracted through brines. Because this process requires evaporating massive pools of water in already-arid regions, it deprives nearby ecosystems and communities of much-needed water, activists warn. Argentina and Chile combined produced around a third of the world’s lithium in 2021 and hold over half of the world’s reserves, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Another potential concern is China’s stranglehold on the mining and processing of critical metals—15 of the DRC’s 19 cobalt-producing mines have ties to Chinese companies.

“We can’t build a future that’s made in America if we ourselves are dependent on China for the materials that power the products of today and tomorrow,” Biden said in February.

“[T]oday, China refines 60 percent of the world’s lithium and 80 percent of the world’s cobalt, two core inputs to high-capacity batteries—which presents a critical vulnerability to the future of the U.S. domestic auto industry,” a June 2021 White House report assessed. The document raised concerns that China could restrict exports of these materials due to tensions with the U.S., sell substandard materials, or entangle the U.S. in supply chains linked to human rights violations, including genocide—presumably a reference to the U.S.-recognized genocide of China’s Uyghur population.

Battery metal mining is also not without environmental impacts. The brine extraction used in South America guzzles up water in areas with little water to spare. And traditional mining can contaminate nearby bodies of water or groundwater used for agriculture or human consumption. A proposed mine at Thacker Pass, Nevada, for example, could contaminate groundwater under and around the mine beyond drinking water standards for hundreds of years.

Plus, mining itself requires immense quantities of energy that often come from burning fossil fuels. Still, Argonne National Laboratory estimates that lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions for an electric vehicle are less than half those of a comparable gas car. Those numbers take into account the energy spent mining needed materials, manufacturing the battery, and charging the electric vehicle.

The disposal of lithium-ion batteries further exacerbates environmental concerns. When used lithium batteries are dumped in landfills, they can release pollutants as they degrade, or even lead to landfill fires.

“We’re still kind of learning about the reuse and the recycling,” Schwartz told The Dispatch. “So, that is something that is really, I think, a frontier area.” He added that while economic considerations could drive technological advances in the reuse of batteries, “recycling will be driven by sound policy.”

Schwartz said that ultimately the overall environmental costs of mining for battery metals should be weighed against those of fossil fuel extraction: “We shouldn’t be construing it as one [type of energy] has no impact, because extracting things for clean energy also has impact, but we need to be balanced.”

So what has the U.S. response to these issues been?

The answer, in large part, seems to be “dig, baby, dig”—or at least try to. Over the past few years, a series of executive actions has pushed the U.S. to produce more battery metals domestically.

In June 2021, the Federal Consortium for Advanced Batteries released a “national blueprint for lithium batteries.” It recommended, among other things, that the U.S. encourage more domestic mining. In 2021, the U.S. produced less than 1 percent of the world’s cobalt and nickel, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The agency did not report domestic lithium production in order to protect the proprietary data of the single lithium mine operating in the U.S. And the U.S. hasn’t produced graphite domestically since the 1950s.

On February 24, 2022, the Department of the Interior updated a 2017 executive order issued by former President Donald Trump directing federal agencies to increase American involvement in the supply chains of “critical minerals,” as well as provide better data and streamlined permitting processes for their domestic mining. The update added nickel to the list of critical minerals, which already included graphite, cobalt, and lithium.

And on March 31, Biden invoked the Cold War-era Defense Production Act to support the reliable production and supply of material critical to the clean energy economy, including metals like graphite, lithium, cobalt, and nickel.

“While it’s too early to evaluate the impact of that order, the signal it sent to markets, to the global community and to miners was important,” Conor Bernstein, a spokesman for the National Mining Association (NMA), told The Dispatch in a statement. “Engagement is well underway between the Department of Defense and industry and there’s considerable interest from our members. Without a doubt, the administration’s early and intense focus on mineral supply chain challenges and recognition of the importance of minerals to achieving key pieces of the President’s agenda has elevated issues that we’ve been talking about for years to center-stage.”

Mills agreed: “I think that [Biden’s series of executive actions] places a lot of downward pressure on these regions developing some of these assets.”

But the U.S. can be a challenging environment for mining. Attempts to mine battery metals domestically have seen varying degrees of success. In Minnesota, Nevada, Idaho, North Carolina, and a handful of other sites across the country, problems have arisen: environmentalists worried about harm to ecosystems, indigenous groups opposed to disruptions to culturally significant land, homeowners who don’t want a mine in their backyards, and government regulators moving slowly.

“[G]etting where the administration wants to go at the speed it has articulated requires immediate attention to the bottlenecks and redundancies in our mine permitting processes,” Bernstein said. “The administration needs to commit to building the secure, domestic industrial base of tomorrow and that begins with permitting it.”

A 2017 report prepared for the NMA by SNL Metals & Mining, an industry data company, estimates that mining projects in the U.S. face a seven- to 10-year permitting process that passes through multiple state and federal agencies and opportunities for public objections. According to the report, the average permitting period in Canada and Australia is a comparatively brief two years.

“I think once there’s a clear framework about how those projects can receive positive support, essentially, that accelerates that process,” Mills said. And he believed that recent pressure from the Biden administration could encourage that.

Twin Metals Minnesota, a company hoping to build a copper and nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota, is one example of a less-than-successful attempt at domestic mining. The company submitted its first of many permit applications, this one for a “pre-feasibility study,” back in 2012. But in a major win for locals worried that pollution from the proposed mine would harm the nearby Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the Biden administration canceled Twin Metals’ mineral leases earlier this year after concluding they were improperly renewed under the Trump administration in 2019.

Glenn Miller, an emeritus professor in the Natural Resources and Environmental Science Department at the University of Nevada, is typically a critic of the mining industry. But the importance of lithium to lithium-ion batteries and a green economy has led him to support the development of the lithium mine in Thacker Pass, Nevada, a project which has drawn fierce opposition from nearby indigenous groups. “I’ve taught environmental science courses for years and realize the importance of climate change is not to be underestimated,” he told The Dispatch.

“I think lithium is really important. I’m a strong supporter of a domestic source of lithium,” Miller added. “And Thacker Pass seems to be rather benign compared to some of the other, gold mines we have.”

Renault has upgraded the Master E-Tech with a larger 52 kWh battery replacing the old 33 kWh unit. Thus, the French LCV can now travel up to 126 miles (203 km) between charges, representing a 68 percent increase over the 75 miles (120 km) of its predecessor.

Despite its size, the Master E-Tech came fitted with the small 33 kWh battery from the original Zoe. The Master lineup was facelifted in 2019, but Renault didn’t add the 52 kWh battery from the updated Zoe into the mix. The battery upgrade was finally announced in late 2021, with the market launch of the long-range Master E-Tech following in 2022.

The lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt (LiMiNmCoO) battery with a capacity of 52 kWh weighs 350 kg (772 pounds) and has the same overall dimensions as the older unit, which means it is not affecting the LCV’s cargo capacity. Other features that contribute to the increased range are regenerative braking, low resistance tires and the ECO driving mode. The 126-mile (203 km) WLTP range makes it easier for business owners to make the change from ICE to EV, although it is still shorter than what you would get from a diesel-powered model with a full tank.

The new battery needs less time to recharge, going from 20-80 percent in 90 minutes from a 22 kW DC charger, in five hours from a 7 kW wallbox, or in 10 hours from a standard domestic socket. As for the powertrain, the zero-emission Master E-Tech retains the single electric motor producing 76 hp (57 kW / 78 PS) and 210 Nm (155 lb-ft) of torque, which is less powerful than the one used in the smaller Kangoo E-Tech.

Renault offers the Master E-Tech in Panel Van, Chassis Cab, and Platform Cab bodystyles, with a gross vehicle weight of 3,500 kg (7,716 pounds). Load volume is up to 13 cubic meters (459 cubic feet) in the longer version of the panel van, while the platform cab has the highest payload capacity of 1,664 kg (3,669 pounds). Equipment in the entry-level Advance includes air conditioning, rear parking sensors, hill start assist, auto headlights and auto wipers, while the Advance trim adds a more comfortable full suspension seat, and the side wind assist.

The updated Renault Master E-Tech will be available to order in the UK starting from August, with the first deliveries expected in September. UK pricing starts from £45,160 ($54,160) excluding VAT, after the PiVG incentives. Mind you, the diesel-powered and E-Tech variants of the Renault Master are joined by HYVIA’s H2-Tech models coming with hydrogen fuel-cell powertrains.

As the world transitions away from fossil fuels, electric vehicles are becoming more ubiquitous. But despite their environmental benefits, they still have a price. The batteries that power them rely on a limited resource: lithium.

But some say California’s so-called “Lithium Valley” could be a vast powerhouse for the next century’s battery needs. A team of scientists is planning to map out deep-earth lithium to see if it can sustainably supply America’s insatiable demand for the element.

The challenge: As electronic devices and electric vehicles become more widespread and our appetite for lithium grows, a lithium supply crunch looms. Just last year, the price of lithium jumped by more than 400%.

By 2030, Cadillac says they will only offer an all-electric lineup of vehicles. GM pledges to go all electric by 2035, and Honda plans to phase out all gas cars by 2040. As more car manufacturers aim to switch to all EV inventories in the next decade, where will they get all that lithium?

Recycling batteries is making some progress. But it isn’t efficient enough to solve our supply needs. And even though researchers are close to finding alternatives to lithium batteries — like 3D-printed solid-state batteries, batteries made from trees or with kevlar membranes, and flow batteries — nothing available today matches the efficiency of lithium.

The promise: The Salton Sea is a land-locked salt lake in the California desert. As odd as it sounds, the salty, superheated water reservoir below the surface promises to provide an abundance of geothermal energy. This renewable energy is produced when hot fluids are brought up from deep down, and the heat is converted to electricity.

Currently, 11 commercial facilities are producing energy in the Salton Sea geothermal field. Once the fluid is cooled, it is typically returned to its origins deep underground. But many scientists hope to get an energy two-for-one — by extracting lithium from it first.

The deep-earth chemicals beneath the Salton Sea could contain enough lithium to cover all of America’s domestic battery demands. But only if it can be sustainably purified and extracted — a process that isn’t nearly as easy as lithium mining.

But as it is currently done in China and Australia, mining lithium from open pits can pollute the air and groundwater and deplete water resources. And even with other extraction options, current mining techniques can’t keep up with the demand.

“The Salton Sea geothermal system is the primary potential geothermal resource for lithium in the United States, and it’s a world-class resource,” said Berkeley Lab’s Pat Dobson. “But there is a wide range of estimates in terms of the size of the resource, and also not a great understanding of where the lithium comes from.”

Mapping the solution: A collaboration of scientists led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory plans to map the source, extent, and long-term viability of the lithium that can be extracted from the geothermal brines of the Salton Sea.

“This work is important to me [because] domestic lithium extraction and lithium battery production provides a means to make our transportation and electrical grids renewable and green. Right now the U.S. imports almost all of its lithium and lithium batteries, with a high carbon footprint for shipping them from Asia,” UC Riverside geochemist Michael McKibben told Freethink, adding that, “The County of Imperial is impoverished so the development of lithium extraction from the geothermal brines there, coupled with the possibility of locating battery manufacturing facilities nearby, could provide a tremendous economic boon to the needy communities.”

One of the aims is to find out how quickly the lithium would be depleted — or, if it is continuously replenished, where it comes from. The team plans to use energy-dispersive and laser ablation instruments, which use lasers to perform chemical analysis.

By knowing exactly where the lithium is and in what form, they can calculate how much we have to work with. Their initial estimates imply there could be millions of tons of lithium hiding there.

“That would be the largest brine source of lithium in the world, bigger than any individual South American salar deposit,” McKibben told Mining.Com. “So, it’s a big number, and it means the potential is there for – again, back-of-the-envelope calculations – something like 50 to 100 years’ worth of lithium production.”

Longer range, faster charging, less range degradation and a lower sticker price: That’s all that new battery technologies are to bring to electric cars. And while, on a practical basis, I remain more enthused about charging developments like GM’s recent expansion with Pilot and EVgo or Tesla Superchargers embracing the world, here are some new battery technologies that are strong rivals for my enthusiasm.

Lithium Ion is far from done

Sila Nanotechnologies is replacing the graphite anode that forms a lot of the bulk and about 15% of the weight of today’s lithium ion batteries with a form of silicon that it claims will give battery cells a 20 to 40% increase in energy density while also charging faster. That change would be roughly analogous to a Ford F-150 getting 25 MPG this year but 35 MPG next model year, an unheard of jump.

Mercedes looks like the first customer to offer the Sila tech as an elite option in the new electric EQG in 2025. Energy density is especially important in heavy vehicles like the EQG because their lardiness tends to magnify the shortcomings of current batteries that have to be large and heavy to move something large and heavy even a decent number of miles, setting up a decided unvirtuous cycle.

Group 14 is another company to watch in the marriage of silicon and lithium, lining up Porsche as a lead partner. OneD is pursuing a strategy of growing silicon nanowires on the graphite anode of a lithium battery. All these approaches leverage the good performance and vast acceptance of lithium battery technologies to move to market apace.

Sodium ion batteries

At the Pacific Northwest National Lab they recently announced a breakthrough in sodium ion battery tech that promises to laugh at the temperature changes that bedevil current EV batteries, charge many times without degradation, be naturally extinguishing and not a toxic headache. PNNL says it’s found a way to tame the unstable aspects of sodium ion technology but still needs to tackle its substantially lower energy density compared to lithium ion. As a bonus, PNNL researchers think they’ll be able to reduce or remove cobalt from the formula, a contentious and toxic element in EV batteries today.

Solid State Batteries

Solid state battery tech is aptly named: It generally refers to batteries made of tightly compressed hard materials rather than the slightly mushy, moist material that makes up a typical lithium battery.

The fact that a solid state battery is composed of hard materials in a rigid package isn’t specifically what makes it perform better, but it’s a simple way to describe a construction that promises a lot of benefits:

Greater energy density. This could yield an EV with far more range from the same size battery or today’s range from a much smaller, cheaper battery tomorrow. The latter is more transformational in my mind.

Faster charging. While full charges in under 30 minutes are rather elite today, solid state batteries target that as a matter of course. Short charge times have the potential to change the entire perception of electric cars.

Longer cycle life. You may have seen my recent story on the problem of EV batteries being put out to pasture because they lose a significant portion of their capacity through charge cycling. Solid state tech is a key part of GM’s plan to produce a million-mile life battery.

Thermal stability. Solid state designs promise little or no chance of thermal runaway, which has made current lithium batteries synonymous with fire risk. Silicon batteries like those mentioned earlier are also said to largely eliminate this problem as well.

Who’s in line to deliver this magic?

Solid Power grabbed headlines lately when it announced it was starting small volume production with the backing of Ford and BMW. Notably, production can be done on lines that make conventional lithium ion batteries today, a potentially huge industrial advantage. Mass production could come as soon as 2024.

Perhaps the most talked about company has been QuantumScape, with backing from VW which says the tech is no less than “the most promising approach to electromobility of the future”. QuantumScape has developed a ceramic separator between anode and cathode that helps its cells charge from 10% to 80% in less than 15 minutes while allowing the battery to lose very little capacity after repeated charges.

Nikkei recently reported that Toyota is by far the world’s leader in solid state battery patents and has said it will have a limited production vehicle using the tech by 2025.

Buzzy EV newcomer Vinfast recently committed to invest in solid state battery maker ProLogium for batteries that could be in the Vietnamese manufacturer’s electric cars by 2024.

Should you wait?

Some of the target dates I related above seem tantalizingly close, but take them with a grain of salt: Slipped mass production dates for any of these battery technologies would surprise exactly nobody. On top of that, the auto industry typically has a long lead time from a new tech being technically available to it being widely available in popularly priced cars. Add to that my general aversion to buying a new car at all and you start to get to the longer end of five to 10 years. I would analyze an EV based on today’s offerings as these exciting new battery technologies are probably a full car ownership cycle away for the smart, value-savvy buyer.

That said these battery technologies will arrive early enough in the EV adoption curve to be major contributors to its tipping point.

Sodium-ion batteries have great promise. They’re energy dense, nonflammable, and operate well in colder temperatures, and sodium is cheap and abundant. Plus, sodium-based batteries will be more environmentally friendly and even less expensive than lithium-ion batteries are becoming now. Sodium-ion battery performance has been limited because of poor durability, but this is about to change for the better.

Sodium-ion battery breakthrough

A research team from the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has developed a sodium-ion battery with greatly extended longevity. The findings, published in the journal Nature Energy, provide a promising recipe for a battery that may one day power electric vehicles and store solar energy.

The researchers shifted the ingredients that make up the battery’s liquid core. That shift prevents performance issues that have caused trouble for previous sodium-based batteries.

PNNL lead author Jiguang (Jason) Zhang, a battery technologies pioneer with more than 23 patented inventions in energy storage technology, said:

Here, we have shown in principle that sodium-ion batteries have the potential to be a long-lasting and environmentally friendly battery technology.

The right salt

As PNNL explains, in batteries, the electrolyte is the circulating “blood” that keeps the energy flowing. The electrolyte forms by dissolving salts in solvents, resulting in charged ions that flow between the positive and negative electrodes. Over time, the electrochemical reactions that keep the energy flowing get sluggish, and the battery can no longer recharge. In current sodium-ion battery technologies, this process happens much faster than in lithium-ion batteries.

The PNNL team attacked that problem by switching out the liquid solution and the type of salt flowing through it to create a new electrolyte recipe.

For the first time ever, scientists greatly extended the number of charging cycles (300 or more) with minimal loss of capacity (>90% retained) in a coin-sized battery in lab tests.

As PNNL explains, the current electrolyte recipe for sodium-ion batteries results in the protective film on the negative end (the anode) dissolving over time. This film is critical because it allows sodium ions to pass through while preserving battery life.

The PNNL-designed technology works by stabilizing this protective film. The new electrolyte also generates an ultrathin protective layer on the positive pole (the cathode) that contributes to additional stability of the entire unit.

Nonflammable technology

The PNNL researchers’ newly developed sodium-ion technology uses a naturally fire-extinguishing solution that is also impervious to temperature changes and can operate at high voltages. One key to this feature is the ultrathin protective layer that forms on the anode. This ultrathin layer remains stable once formed, providing the long cycle life reported in the research article.

Sodium-ion technology still currently lags behind lithium when it comes to energy density. But it still has its own unique advantages, such as temperature-change resistance, stability, and a long cycle life. Those advantages will prove to be valuable for applications of certain light-duty electric vehicles and even grid energy storage in the future.