The future of energy storage, it would be hidden in our little salt pots? A team of French researchers led by the CNRS and the CEA has indeed present the first sodium-ion 18650 battery industry format, one of the standard sizes used for lithium-ion batteries. That is to say a cylinder of 1.8 cm diameter and 6.5 cm height. The advantage of sodium is that it is almost 1000 times more abundant than lithium, and therefore much cheaper. It is spread all over the crust. Seawater is also rich in the form of sodium chloride. In contrast, lithium is only some parts of the world such as Colombia, China or Chile. However, the batteries needs are growing, obviously with mobile computing and now with electric cars which once widely used, are likely to create a soaring current lithium.
The problem is that the sodium ions are, at first glance, not as good as lithium ions. Lithium batteries are used to obtain a greater voltage and are much lighter. It is therefore easier to achieve high energy densities of over 200 Wh / kg. For comparison, the French-sodium ion cell reaches only 90 Wh / kg. “But beware, this is only a first prototype. When Sony released its first lithium-ion battery in 1991, the energy density was 110 Wh / kg. But we have a lot more knowledge about batteries today. We we can climb faster performance. But we will never do better than the lithium-ion “ said Jean-Marie Tarascon, solid chemist at CNRS, professor at the Collège de France and director of RS2E (Network electrochemical energy storage) a French group that brings together public laboratories and private industry.
A similar industrial process
However, the life of the prototype is already excellent. With 2000 charging and discharging cycles, French researchers immediately get equivalent performance to current lithium-ion batteries. Another advantage: the industrial manufacturing process is similar to lithium-ion. “For a manufacturer, the adoption of the sodium ion will not be complicated” said Jean-Marie Tarascon.
The future of the sodium-ion battery therefore looks promising. But for what applications? According to Tarascon, mobile computing sectors and automotive will not be very interested because too obsessed with the energy density and autonomy. “In contrast, the sodium-ion battery is a good candidate for mass storage network, for example for wind or photovoltaic fields. Currently, it is used for the mass storage of the sodium-sulfur batteries have the disadvantage that they operate at high temperature (270-350 ° C, ed). Which reduces energy efficiency. As for the lithium-ion technology, it would be far too expensive in this context “, the researcher said.
France, among the advanced countries
However, the French researchers are not the only ones who dig the meninges. Their Japanese counterparts are currently leading in this area. Toshiba, for example, conducts research for a sodium-ion battery for the electric car. British startup Faradion, funded among others by Sharp recently presented an electric bicycle based on a Sodium-ion battery. Research is also made in the United States. “In this area, the French are at the forefront, behind the Japanese” says Jean-Marie Tarascon. An advance that we must now exploit.
Source:
CNRS
No comments:
Post a Comment