(Invited) Commercialisation of Sustainable Sodium Ion Batteries

Abstract

As the world continues to face one crisis after another, the demand for renewable energy and a reliable supply of abundant raw materials is stronger than ever. This is becoming abundantly clear for Li-ion batteries whose adoption in electric vehicles and stationary energy storage is rapidly expanding. In line with this growth, the limited supply of critical raw materials such as Li, Co and Ni is driving up prices. Thus, batteries based on alternate, abundant raw materials are critical. Consequently, in November 2022 IUPAC announced sodium-ion batteries amongst the top ten emerging technologies in Chemistry 2022 [1].Since 2015 we have been developing a sodium-ion battery prototype with low-cost materials and a keen focus on maintaining safety and sustainability. The battery cell consists of Prussian white (Na2Fe[Fe(CN)6]) as the positive electrode, hard carbon as the negative and sodium bis(oxalate)borate (NaBOB) as fluorine-free salt dissolved in non-flammable alkyl phosphate-based solvents such as triethyl phosphate (TEP) and trimethyl phosphate (TMP) as the electrolyte solution. Our early successes in the low cost synthesis of Prussian white led to the spin-off company ALTRIS which is now focused on the commercialization of sodium-ion batteries. The company has successfully raised funding in seed and Series A funding rounds. With the funding ALTRIS has started construction of an industrial scale manufacturing unit with the annual capacity of 2,000 tonnes of Prussian white to enable 1 GWh of sodium-ion batteries.Part of the on-going success of Altris is the close collaboration to the research teams within the Ångström Advanced Battery Center and the concurrent developments of material understanding and pilot industrial scale implementation. In this contribution an update of the company progress will be presented including a brief history as well as future plans for cell production. A focus will be placed on how fundamental investigations at Uppsala University are accelerating material development for solving problems such as moisture sensitivity and structural degradation.[1] Gomollón-Bel, F., Chem. Int. 2022, 44(4), 4