Sodium battery

With the rise of clean energy, scientists have been searching for ways to design cheaper, safer, and more sustainable batteries. German researchers have come up with a promising solution: making batteries from by-products of the wood industry.

California-based startup Inlyte wants to offer a scalable alternative to lithium-ion storage batteries with its sodium-iron tech, and it will soon manufacture cells in the US to showcase its benefits.

Elecom has launched the world's first power bank to feature a sodium-ion battery inside. It promises significantly longer cycle life than traditional lithium-ion batteries, as well as the ability to operate in extremely hot and cold climes.

CATL has announced a new style of battery destined to create a cleaner, longer-range generation of plug-in hybrids. The Freevoy Super Hybrid Battery will give PHEVs the all-electric range and ultra-fast charging of a battery electric vehicle.

Swedish sodium-ion developer Altris has identified a means of making the lithium-free batteries even more sustainable. Together with partner Stora Enso, it's adapting tree pulp-sourced carbon toward use as an anode material.

Natron Energy fell a little behind schedule on production plans for its sodium batteries but officially commenced production of the rapid-charging, long-life lithium-free batteries this week, bringing to market an intriguing new storage alternative.

An international team of scientists eyeing next-generation energy storage solutions have demonstrated an eco-friendly and low-cost battery with some exciting potential, which includes a fourfold increase on energy capacity over lithium-ion batteries.

Batteries that make use of sodium as an electrode material are showing exciting promise by some key measures when it comes to next-generation energy storage solutions, and new research has now edged them closer to mainstream use.

An exciting candidate when it comes to alternative battery chemistries is sodium-ion, and a research team in Russia has developed a novel battery of this ilk that boasts some impressive energy density, and may also be resistant to low temperatures.

Natron's sodium-ion batteries have an enormous cycle life, practical power density, excellent safety and super-fast charging, without using any lithium. Through a partnership with Clarios, they'll go into mass manufacture in Michigan next year.

Needle-like growths called dendrites form on the electrode to hamper the performance of many promising experimental batteries, but a team at the University of Texas at Austin are putting forward a solution for a particularly eco-friendly one.

Graphene is already shaping the future of battery technology in some interesting ways, and now scientists have deployed a novel form of the wonder material in a sustainable sodium battery to bring about a tenfold increase in capacity.