Pitch
Renewable energy sources are intermittent and out of phase with electricity consumption patterns. Storing this energy and releasing it when needed is therefore crucial for a world powered by baseload renewables. Sodium-ion batteries will help to encounter this need.
The price of lithium-ion batteries is still too high for stationary applications. Resorting to a sodium-based chemistry will enable lower manufacturing costs, eliminate dependency from unevenly distributed resources, and lower batteries’ environmental impact.
The sodium-ion battery setup we propose contains aluminum for both current collectors. Its positive electrode comprises an active material based on environmentally friendly and low-cost metals while the negative composite electrode uses hard carbon as active material. The latter can be derived from biomass pyrolysis in inert gas.
