Energy storage sodium battery technology has great potential in the world

The demand for electric energy storage continues to grow

Countries around the world have formulated development strategies to accelerate the adjustment of energy structure. Wind power and photovoltaic have natural intermittency and volatility. With the increase of installed capacity and power generation scale, the impact on the power system is more obvious.

New types of energy storage maintained a high growth, in which lithium ion batteries such as 12 volt lithium battery played an absolutely dominant role. According to statistics, by the end of 2021, the cumulative installed capacity of energy storage projects that have been put into operation in the global power system is 209.4GW, up 9% year on year. The growing demand for electric energy storage still needs to be filled by other forms of energy storage, such as energy storage sodium battery technology.

The advantages of energy storage sodium battery technology are significant

The price of upstream raw materials of lithium battery rose, and the price of lithium carbonate rose to 500000 RMB/ton from 55000 RMB/ton at the beginning of last year. According to the report, the installed capacity of energy storage in Q1 grid of the United States in 2022 reaches 747MW/2399MWh, down 53.7%/49.2% month on month compared with Q4 in 2021.

The construction of 1.2GW energy storage projects will be delayed, of which about 1/4 will be delayed to next year. Ameresco, a battery energy storage developer, announced that the 537.5MW/2150MWh battery energy storage project in California, which was commissioned in August, will be delayed in grid connection.

According to statistics, when the price of lithium carbonate is 150000 RMB/ton, the cost of NaCuFeMnO/soft carbon battery material is 30-40% lower than that of lithium iron phosphate/graphite battery material. Under the expectation of tight balance between supply and demand of lithium carbonate, the price of lithium carbonate in 2022H2 is expected to be stable at about 500000 RMB/ton.

Moreover, the price rate of lithium carbonate in the next three years is expected to remain above 200000 RMB/ton. In this context, energy storage sodium battery technology has significant advantages, and sodium ion batteries will go into mass production.

Energy storage sodium battery technology vs lithium ion battery technology

Sodium ion battery is expected to accelerate its penetration in electric energy storage by virtue of rich resources, low cost, high energy conversion efficiency, long cycle life, low maintenance costs and other advantages. Compared with lithium ion batteries, sodium ion batteries have the following advantages:

Cost

The cost of energy storage sodium battery technology is reduced, mainly due to the rich reserves of sodium resources. The sodium content in the crust is 2.75%, higher than the lithium content of 0.065 ‰; Moreover, sodium resources are evenly distributed, which is different from lithium resources. About 70% of sodium resources are mainly concentrated in South America.

Rate performance

The performance of energy storage sodium battery technology is improved because the solvation energy of sodium ion is lower than that of lithium ion, and the interface ion diffusion capacity is higher; Moreover, the energy storage sodium battery technology has higher ionic conductivity, and the rate performance of sodium ion battery is better.

Temperature adaptability

In the energy storage sodium battery technology, the sodium ion battery has better performance at high and low temperatures. The capacity retention rate is 70% at – 40℃, and it can be recycled at 80℃. At the level of energy storage system, the air conditioning power quota can be reduced, and there is room for cost reduction.

Cycle performance

The cycle performance of sodium ion battery has higher potential due to the larger sodium ion radius. Unlike lithium doping, which reduces the specific capacity of materials, sodium cathode materials have more diversified elements, providing greater exploration space for industrial applications.

Analysis of energy storage sodium battery technology route

Production process

In the energy storage sodium battery technology, the production process of sodium ion battery can refer to lithium ion battery, one of the best rechargeable batteries at present, and some processes are simplified. Taking the flexible packaging lamination process as an example, the process can be divided into three parts:

● Front end electrode manufacturing process
Including electrode slurry preparation, electrode coating, rolling, vacuum drying of electrode sheet, electrode sheet cutting, etc;

● Rear end assembly process
Including lamination, welding, shell sealing, vacuum drying, liquid injection and sealing, etc;

● Chemical composition selection process
Including pre packaging, chemical composition, secondary packaging, fractional screening, etc.

The difference with lithium battery is that aluminum foil can be used as the negative collector in the energy storage sodium battery technology, which can simplify the welding process.

Cathode material

The biggest difference between energy storage sodium battery technology and lithium ion technology lies in the cathode materials. At present, the cathode material system of energy storage sodium battery technology is mainly divided into three technical routes:

● Layered transition metal oxide

Layered oxide, with two-dimensional transport channel, and fast sodium ion transport; It has high compaction density and high energy density; The disadvantages are that the unmodified materials have poor stability in the air, increased production, storage and use costs, and poor cycle life.

● Polyanions

Polyanion materials have high working voltage, and usually have excellent magnification performance, cycling performance and thermal stability. However, the conductivity is poor and needs to be improved.

● Prussian Blue

Prussian blue like raw materials have low cost and are expected to be industrialized, but they need to be synthesized by aqueous solution method.

Anode material

The anode materials of energy storage sodium battery technology mainly include:
● Carbon based materials
● Titanium based compounds
● Alloy materials
● Metallic compounds

Among them, the cycling properties of alloy materials and metal oxide materials need to be improved; The energy density of titanium based compound anode battery is relatively limited. Among carbon based materials, graphite is difficult to be used as negative material for energy storage sodium battery technology. The amorphous carbon with large interlayer spacing has a good application prospect.

Electrolyte

In the energy storage sodium battery technology, the electrolyte of sodium ion battery is similar to that of lithium ion battery, both of which are composed of electrolyte, solvent and additive. The biggest difference is that the electrolyte changes from lithium hexafluorophosphate to sodium hexafluorophosphate.

It is expected that the head manufacturers of lithium hexafluorophosphate and electrolyte will have the ability to switch capacity in the future. The capacity of sodium electrolyte may be difficult to limit the development of sodium ion batteries. Among them, manufacturers with the ability to produce low-cost, high yield and high-quality sodium hexafluorophosphate will have core competitiveness.

Energy storage sodium battery technology has explosive potential in the world

At present, more than 60 companies in the world are carrying out the relevant layout of sodium ion battery industrialization, mainly including FARADION in the UK, NAIADES in France, Natron Energy in the United States, Panasonic in Japan, and CATL in China.

CATL is a famous energy storage battery companies in China. In July 2021, it released the first generation of sodium ion batteries. It is planned to apply sodium ion batteries to new energy vehicles through structural innovation of AB batteries. At present, the global energy storage sodium battery technology mainly stays in the laboratory or small/pilot stage.

Lithium battery and sodium battery are compatible with some production lines, and the elasticity of production capacity gives sodium ion battery explosive potential. Lithium cathode material manufacturers ZEC, Ronbay Technology, etc. have all laid out layered sodium oxide cathode materials, and cooperated with cell manufacturers to develop energy storage sodium battery technology.

Calculation of the scale of energy storage sodium battery technology industry

Economic demands promote the development of energy storage sodium battery technology. With the gradual maturity of sodium ion battery industrialization, sodium ion battery has accelerated its penetration in the energy storage field. It is estimated that the permeability in the field of energy storage sodium battery technology from 2022 to 2025 will be 0.2%/5%/19.2%/31.1% respectively.

In China, it is estimated that the shipment of sodium ion batteries in the energy storage field from 2023-2025 will be 8.9/55.1/143.0 GWh, with a three-year compound growth rate of 300%. The potential market space of sodium ion battery in 2023-2025 will be 273.5/391.7/577.8 GWh respectively, and the sodium ion battery shipment will be 10.2/66.2/166.6 GWh, with a corresponding penetration rate of 4%/17%/29%.

Analysis of key energy storage sodium battery technology companies

ZEC

ZEC is the leader in the subdivided field of single crystal ternary cathode materials. Its core products cover a full range of large single crystal lithium nickel cobalt manganate ternary cathode materials with medium nickel, medium high nickel and high nickel. In terms of energy storage sodium battery technology, the company has successfully developed a series of layered sodium positive electrodes.

The company can adjust the production line to be compatible with the production of sodium cathode materials, and switch the three sintering process of single crystal materials to the two sintering process of sodium cathode materials.

The company takes the lead in seizing the new track of positive material of energy storage sodium battery technology, and its product development progress is leading in the industry, which is expected to fully benefit from the improvement of sodium electricity permeability.

Ronbay Technology

The company is the leader in the high nickel ternary field. High nickel ternary is the mainstream technology for long endurance vehicles. The company takes the lead in high nickel ternary material technology in the industry and is the first to achieve mass production in China.

In July 2022, the company announced that it will transform into a comprehensive supplier of cathode materials covering the whole market and declare the layout of three technical routes:

● High nickel ternary cathode
● Lithium manganese iron phosphate
● Sodium battery

In 2021, the company’s ternary cathode material shipments will be the first in China, accounting for 13.30%, of which the company’s high nickel ternary products will account for about 90% of the total ternary shipments. It is estimated that the capacity of the Company’s energy storage sodium cathode materials will reach 250000 tons in 2022, leading the industry in terms of capacity scale,

HUAYANG

The company is committed to building an integrated development industrial pattern of coal, photovoltaic industry, sodium ion battery, flywheel energy storage, etc. In terms of energy storage sodium battery technology, HUAYANG independently developed nano ultra pure carbon technology, which can use anthracite by-product slime as the soft carbon precursor of sodium electricity cathode.

The company’s coal business is solid and stable, and it has deep cooperation with HiNa Battery. It leads the energy storage sodium power technology industry in the process of sodium power industrialization, and is expected to build an energy storage customer base relying on downstream thermal power companies.