Argonne leads $50M sodium-ion innovation push

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded $50 million over the next five years to establish the Low-cost Earth-abundant Na-ion Storage (LENS) consortium. Led by DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory, the consortium includes DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

The LENS consortium aims to develop high-energy, long-lasting sodium-ion batteries using safe, abundant and inexpensive materials. This initiative addresses a critical need to reduce US dependence on the limited and strategically important elements used in lithium-ion batteries, paving the way for a more sustainable future in electric-vehicle technology.

At present, lithium-ion batteries dominate the global energy storage market for both vehicles and stationary storage. They power devices ranging from smartphones to electric vehicles and can store energy from renewable sources like solar and wind. Relying on any single battery chemistry, however, creates vulnerabilities, and the dominant batteries today include the critical elements of lithium, cobalt and nickel. Sodium, as an abundant element, can reduce risk and increase supply chain resilience by providing a wider variety of cost-effective options.

The US is particularly well-suited to supply both the raw materials and innovation for sodium-ion technology because the country produces a substantial amount of the world’s sodium chloride (table salt) and sodium. Sodium-ion batteries have the potential to eliminate not just lithium in some applications, but also cobalt and nickel, providing a more affordable and sustainable solution.

However, sodium-ion batteries store less energy per unit weight and volume, which results in a lower driving range—a stumbling block to such batteries competing with lithium-ion batteries.