Swedish company Northvolt develops new state-of-the-art sodium-ion battery produced with locally sourced materials, entirely independent of traditional battery value chains
Northvolt is proud to add sodium-ion to its cell chemistry portfolio, enabling safe, low-cost, sustainable power for energy storage systems.
In a statement, Northvolt says its validated cell is more safe, cost-effective, and sustainable than conventional nickel, manganese and cobalt (NMC) or iron phosphate (LFP) chemistries and is produced with minerals such as iron and sodium that are abundant on global markets.
It is based on a hard carbon anode and a Prussian White-based cathode, and is free from lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite. Leveraging a breakthrough in battery design and manufacturing, Northvolt plans to be the first to industrialize Prussian White-based batteries and bring them to commercial markets.
Reports across the web also say the technology enables the supply chain to become ecologically more sustainable, cheaper, abd less dependent on China.
Time to put my chemistry to use for something other than covering up the ugly spot in the wallpaper!
Prussian white isn't really a thing a thing you dig up, it's a thing you make in a lab or a factory. The nice thing is that you can make it from basic components and basically at room temperatures
It's just sodium, iron, carbon, nitrogen and manganese. Those are incredibly common elements and easy to find anywhere on earth.
Synthesis probably involves some solvents and acids, but nothing overly dangerous. You can make this stuff in a very basic lab with moderately basic precursors.
(although industrial size synthesis is very different from what people publish papers on, so take all this with a grain of salt)
Yea, but they're WAY more complex than a giant beaker and if it's an exothermic reaction, they basically always take extra, cooling and all sorts of control mechanisms, too. By saying, "but they basically are" is very specifically ignoring every single detail about the entire point.
It IS NOT like a giant beaker precisely because it needs all of the extra stuff on top of a giant container.
It's a natrium-iron cyanide salt. Probably poisonous, not any harder to produce than any other industrial chemical, as long as you automate the process.