Editor/Zhang Nan
Design/stone
"Seawater contains a lot of sodium chloride. What I propose from seawater is sodium, which can be used to generate electricity.
"Can sodium?
"Yes, Sir. ..... Sodium battery has a lot of energy, and its electromotive force is several times stronger than that of zinc battery. "
This is a conversation between Captain Nemo and Professor Arona Cox in Verne's novel Two Wan Li under the Sea. This novel, which was born in 1870, wrote down the human imagination of sodium batteries.
In reality, the appearance of sodium ion batteries has been delayed for almost one hundred years.
1976, Whittingham discovered that titanium disulfide (TiS2) can intercalate and deintercalate lithium ions (Li+) and make Li||TiS2 battery. The reversible deintercalation mechanism of sodium ions in TiS2 was also found.
1980, armand put forward the concept of "rocking chair battery". Lithium ion is like a rocking chair. The two ends of the rocking chair are the poles of the battery, and lithium ions move back and forth at both ends of the rocking chair. The principle of sodium ion battery is the same as that of lithium ion battery, which is also called rocking chair battery.
The principle is the same, almost at the same time, but the fate of the two brothers, sodium ion battery and lithium ion battery, is completely different.
In 1980s, Delmas and Goodenough discovered that NaMeO2, a layered oxide material, could be used as the cathode material of sodium ion batteries. (Goodenough and Whittingham both won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 20 19) 1988, Fouletier studied the sodium storage characteristics of soft carbon and graphite, and began to study the carbon anode materials of sodium ion batteries.
1990, Sony Corporation of Japan made a breakthrough in the commercialization of lithium-ion battery based on graphite anode, and put it on the market in May of the following year. Since then, lithium-ion batteries have ushered in their own times, while sodium-ion batteries have fallen into a long silence.
It was not until 2000 that Stevens and Dahn found that hard carbon materials had excellent sodium ion intercalation performance, and the research on negative electrode materials of sodium ion batteries made a major turning point.
In 20 15, the world's first 18650 cylindrical sodium ion battery led by French RS2E was born, with an energy density of 90Wh/kg and a cycle life of more than 2000 times.
Since then, French Tiamat, British Faraday, American Natron Energy, China Zhongke Haina and other companies have made their own research achievements in the field of sodium ion batteries.
In June, 20021,the world's first 1MWh sodium ion battery energy storage system was put into production in Taiyuan, Shanxi.
Image source: Zhongke Haina
In July of the same year, Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd., the world's leading power battery, officially released the sodium ion battery, and made it clear that the industrial layout has begun, and an industrial chain will basically be formed by 2023.
At that time, new energy vehicles were suffering from the high price of lithium carbonate, and sodium ion batteries showed the industry a close alternative.
Although commercialization is almost 30 years later than lithium-ion battery, sodium-ion battery has reached its own era. Although it is late, it is not too late.
Covering a variety of application scenarios
In terms of resource reserves, there is much more sodium than lithium on the earth. Sodium resources are very rich, and the crustal abundance is 2.75%, ranking sixth; The crustal abundance of lithium is only 0.0065%, ranking 27th.
And sodium is distributed all over the world, and 75% of lithium resources are concentrated in the United States. So in contrast, the supply chain of sodium is also safer.
Because of abundant 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 battery is 30%-40% lower than that of lithium ion battery.
Image source: Zhongke Haina official website
In terms of cathode materials, sodium ion batteries mainly have three routes: layered oxide, polyanion compound and Prussian compound. In terms of anode materials, mainly carbon-based materials such as hard carbon and soft carbon.
On July 29th, 20021year, Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. released the sodium ion battery. Cathode material is Prussian white material with high gram capacity, and cathode material is hard carbon material with unique pore structure. Based on the breakthrough of material system, the energy density of the first generation sodium ion battery of Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. reached 160Wh/kg.
From June 5438 to February 2022, Yiwei Lithium can release large cylindrical sodium ion battery products. The anode is made of layered oxide and the cathode is made of hard carbon. The energy density is 135Wh/kg, and the number of cycles reaches 2500.
Honeycomb Energy plans to complete the design and finalization of the second generation sodium ion battery products in the first quarter of 2023, with the energy density of 1.35 Wh/kg, and plans to complete the research and development of 1.60 Wh/kg sodium ion battery in the fourth quarter.
Because the energy density is between lead-acid battery and lithium-ion battery, sodium ion battery will be mainly used in two-wheeled electric vehicles, three-wheeled electric vehicles, low-speed electric vehicles, energy storage and new energy vehicles.
The commercialization attempt of Zhongke Haina sodium ion battery is ahead. On 20 18, the first low-speed sodium ion battery electric vehicle appeared, and on 20 19, the first sodium ion battery energy storage power station came out, and the 202 1 mwh global sodium ion battery energy storage system was successfully put into operation.
In 20021year, sodium innovation energy released the world's first integrated energy system of sodium ion battery-methanol reforming to produce hydrogen for the first time, and jointly released the world's first two-wheeled electric vehicle driven by sodium ion battery with Emma Technology.
The White Paper on the Development of Sodium Ion Battery Industry in China (2023) issued by EVTank and Ivey Economic Research Institute puts forward that the main shipping field of sodium ion batteries will focus on low power represented by two-wheeled vehicles before 2025, and its application in the field of energy storage will be gradually improved after 2025, and sodium ion batteries for energy storage will become the biggest 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, it is clearly stipulated in the prevention of fire accidents in electrochemical energy storage power stations that "ternary lithium batteries and sodium-sulfur batteries should not be used in medium and large electrochemical energy storage power stations, and it is not appropriate to use stepped power batteries".
This positioning is very clear, which is objectively beneficial to the application of sodium ion batteries in the field of energy storage.
For passenger cars, sodium ion batteries can only meet the needs of vehicles with low endurance below 400 kilometers. However, the AB battery scheme officially announced by Amperex Technology and Limited can meet the demand of vehicles with a battery life of 500 kilometers through the complementary advantages of lithium and sodium, and "it is expected to cover about 65% of the pure electric passenger car market".
Step into the critical period of mass production
In 2022, Zhongke Haina built sodium ion battery 1000 tons of anode and cathode materials and 1 GWh battery production lines in Taiyuan, Shanxi and Fuyang, Anhui, respectively, taking the lead in opening the road to industrialization.
It is worth mentioning that in March 2022, Huawei invested about 410.3 million yuan through its platform Hubble, and acquired the shares of Zhongke Hainajin10.3%, becoming its third largest shareholder.
In 2023, more and more sodium ion battery enterprises announced their own industrialization progress.
Image source: Siwei New Energy
On February 23rd, the industry's first sodium ion battery prototype jointly built by Sihao New Energy and Zhongke Haina was publicly unveiled, and the loading test was Sihao EX 10 Flower Fairy. This version of sodium battery has a cruising range of 252km, a battery capacity of 25kWh, battery cell energy density 140Wh/kg, system energy density 120Wh/kg, and fast charging time (SOC10%-80%) of 20 minutes.
Li Shujun, general manager of Zhongke Haina, revealed in an interview with the media: "With the expansion of the industrialization scale of sodium batteries, compared with lithium iron phosphate batteries, the industry generally believes that there will be a battery cost advantage of 20%-30%. Of course, this data is also related to the price of lithium carbonate. Reflected in the whole vehicle, there may be a cost advantage of about 10%. "
On March 1 day, Funeng Technology announced that it had received a letter from Jiangxi Jiangling Group New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. designating EV3 sodium battery, and would supply it with sodium ion battery assembly, which is expected to be mass-produced and loaded in the second quarter of 2023.
In the annual conference call held on March 9, Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. said that the company's sodium ion battery is expected to be industrialized in 2023, and the specific scale depends on the customer's project progress. Compared with lithium-ion batteries, the company's sodium-ion batteries "have obvious cost advantages now and will have more advantages when the supply chain is mature".
On March 10, Polyfluoride said on the investor interaction platform that the company's existing sodium ion battery products are being tested on board in several car factories. By the end of 2023, the annual production capacity of sodium ion batteries in polyfluoride Henan base is expected to reach 1GWh. Polyfluoride not only produces sodium ion batteries by itself, but also has a thousand tons of production capacity of sodium hexafluorophosphate, which is supplied to the outside world in batches.
In terms of manufacturing, the production process of sodium ion battery and lithium ion battery is basically similar. By debugging the traditional lithium ion battery production line, the capacity layout of sodium ion battery can be completed quickly.
Mock told auto business review that there are no major technical problems in the industrialization of sodium ion batteries, and there will be some specific problems to be solved in mass production. In addition, it depends on the verification process of sodium ion batteries by downstream application products (such as electric bicycles and new energy passenger cars), and some specific problems may be found during the verification process.
What is the effect of falling lithium price on sodium ion batteries?
Sodium ion battery has been written into many government documents and encouraged to develop vigorously as a new battery route.
From June 5438 to June 2023 10, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other six departments issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of Energy Electronics Industry, clearly proposing to speed up the research and development of new batteries such as sodium ion batteries. "Focusing on the low cost and high safety of batteries, we will strengthen the research on anode and cathode materials such as hard carbon anode materials, main materials such as electrolyte and related auxiliary materials, develop efficient modular system integration technology, and accelerate the technological breakthrough and large-scale application of sodium ion batteries."
In July 2022, China's first batch of sodium ion industry standards, Terms and Vocabulary of Sodium Ion Battery and Symbols and Terms of Sodium Ion Battery, were officially released, drafted by Zhongke Haina, Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. and BYD. This will further promote the standardization of the sodium ion industry.
EVTank judges that the actual shipment of sodium ion batteries will reach 347GWh in 2030, and the biggest application field will be energy storage.
EVTank also pointed out that the most sensitive factor affecting the large-scale application of sodium ion batteries at present is the cost comparison between sodium ion batteries, lithium ion batteries and lead-acid batteries. According to its calculation, the cost of sodium ion battery is about 0.84 yuan /Wh, which is higher than that of lithium iron phosphate battery and lead-acid battery, and its cost advantage has not been fully reflected.
According to the data of domestic commercial organizations, the price of lithium carbonate continues to fall. On March 15, the benchmark price of battery-grade lithium carbonate was 359,000 yuan/ton, down from 408,000 yuan/ton at the beginning of this month165438+609,000 yuan/ton, even lower than last year's price peak.
Image source: business community
If the price of lithium carbonate continues to fall, the cost advantage of sodium ion batteries will decrease accordingly, thus affecting the industrialization of sodium ion batteries?
EVTank bluntly said that the fluctuation of lithium carbonate price will be one of the most critical factors affecting the large-scale application of sodium ion batteries in the later period.
Mock said: "The price of lithium carbonate keeps falling, which makes the cost of lithium-ion batteries keep falling, while the cost of sodium-ion batteries needs to be expanded to be lower than that of lithium-ion batteries. The interaction of these factors is really not conducive to the application and promotion of sodium ion batteries. "
In February this year, in response to investors' questions, Polyfluoride revealed that the estimated cost of the first batch of commercial mass-produced sodium ion batteries was lower than that of lithium batteries, and said that "even if the price of lithium carbonate drops to 6.5438+10,000 yuan/ton, sodium batteries are still competitive".
According to auto business review, the cost advantage of sodium ion battery is the second, and its greatest value is that it can solve the problems of tight supply of lithium resources and soaring price of lithium. So its existence itself is a means of checks and balances. This existence value will not disappear because of the temporary decline of lithium price.
The era of sodium ion batteries has just begun.
This article was originally published by auto business review.
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This article is from auto business review, written by Yi Chehao, and the copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author for any form of reprint. The content only represents the author's point of view and has nothing to do with the car reform.