Sodium ion batteries closer to commercialization

Purdue University researchers made a sodium powder battery that fixes the problem of charges and discharges of sodium ion batteries.

Even though sodium-ion batteries would be physically heavier than lithium-ion technology, researchers have been investigating sodium-ion batteries because they could store energy for large solar and wind power facilities at lower cost.

The problem is that sodium ions stick to the hard carbon end of a battery, called an anode, during the initial charging cycles and not travel over to the cathode end. The ions build up into a structure called a “solid electrolyte interface.”

“Normally the solid electrolyte interface is good because it protects carbon particles from a battery’s acidic electrolyte, where electricity is conducted,” Pol said. “But too much of the interface consumes the sodium ions that we need for charging the battery.”

Purdue researchers proposed using sodium as a powder, which provides the required amount of sodium for the solid electrolyte interface to protect carbon, but doesn’t build up in a way that it consumes sodium ions.

They minimized sodium’s exposure to the moisture that would make it combust by making the sodium powder in a glovebox filled with the gas argon. To make the powder, they used an ultrasound – the same tool used for monitoring the development a fetus – to melt sodium chunks into a milky purple liquid. The liquid then cooled into a powder, and was suspended in a hexane solution to evenly disperse the powder particles.

Just a few drops of the sodium suspension onto the anode or cathode electrodes during their fabrication allows a sodium-ion battery cell to charge and discharge with more stability and at higher capacity – the minimum requirements for a functional battery.

55 thoughts on “Sodium ion batteries closer to commercialization”

  1. Is there a source for the “cities now persecute people who live off the grid within their corporate limits”? Because 2 minutes of googling just brought up stories where either: 1. People were being told they couldn’t, for example, put in a large wind turbine in a suburban backyard, for obvious noise and appearance reasons. 2. People had solar systems that were hooked up to the grid with the benefit of using the grid as a free and infinitely sized battery. And were then upset when this means that when the grid turned off, their system was turned off too. They weren’t trying to “live off the grid”, they were trying to “free ride off the grid” and remarkably this meant that their system wasn’t independent.

  2. I’ll happily put my off the grid batteries in their own little steel shack, if they cost half what lithium batteries do per kWh. Has anyone else considered that really cheap storage batteries would destroy the current business model of electrical utilities? Remember what happened to the old twisted pair home phone companies? The cost of PV almost anywhere in the US is now low enough to provide my energy, and in some parts of the country, wind is allegedly cheaper, or is that just for gargantuan windmills? Inverter prices are getting fairly reasonable, and more and more companies are coming out with one size fits all combined grid compliant/stand alone inverters, and battery chargers/controllers in one package. SMA just announced a very nice product within the last week. The last part of the puzzle is cheap, reliable batteries, and a simple alternator that can charge batteries during very cloudy periods. The OSFA inverters makes it easy to install everything while you have an electrical service, see how long you can go without actually using any utility power, and once you’re comfortable with the situation, cut the electrical cord. You’ll probably see the southern California utilities die first, since the citizenry loves solar, and the electric rates are very high. Early adopters will drop off first. It will be hard for the watermelons to tell people they can’t have their own ultra green solar electricity, and no naughty nuclear thrown in. As the number of subscribers drop, the cost of the distribution network will remain, and then there is the whole stranded costs thing, so rates will have to go up, meaning more people will cut that cord. If enough people want to leave the grid, will it be possible for governments to maintain laws against it? Some cities now persecute people who live off the grid within their corporate limits, and it is wildly unpopular with the citizens that stay on the grid. After all, do you persecute people for not having a l

  3. Is there a source for the cities now persecute people who live off the grid within their corporate limits””?Because 2 minutes of googling just brought up stories where either:1. People were being told they couldn’t”” for example put in a large wind turbine in a suburban backyard for obvious noise and appearance reasons.2. People had solar systems that were hooked up to the grid with the benefit of using the grid as a free and infinitely sized battery. And were then upset when this means that when the grid turned off”” their system was turned off too. They weren’t trying to “”””live off the grid”””””””” they were trying to “”””free ride off the grid”””” and remarkably this meant that their system wasn’t independent.”””

  4. I’ll happily put my off the grid batteries in their own little steel shack if they cost half what lithium batteries do per kWh. Has anyone else considered that really cheap storage batteries would destroy the current business model of electrical utilities? Remember what happened to the old twisted pair home phone companies? The cost of PV almost anywhere in the US is now low enough to provide my energy and in some parts of the country wind is allegedly cheaper or is that just for gargantuan windmills? Inverter prices are getting fairly reasonable and more and more companies are coming out with one size fits all combined grid compliant/stand alone inverters and battery chargers/controllers in one package. SMA just announced a very nice product within the last week. The last part of the puzzle is cheap reliable batteries and a simple alternator that can charge batteries during very cloudy periods.The OSFA inverters makes it easy to install everything while you have an electrical service see how long you can go without actually using any utility power and once you’re comfortable with the situation cut the electrical cord.You’ll probably see the southern California utilities die first since the citizenry loves solar and the electric rates are very high. Early adopters will drop off first. It will be hard for the watermelons to tell people they can’t have their own ultra green solar electricity and no naughty nuclear thrown in. As the number of subscribers drop the cost of the distribution network will remain and then there is the whole stranded costs thing so rates will have to go up meaning more people will cut that cord.If enough people want to leave the grid will it be possible for governments to maintain laws against it? Some cities now persecute people who live off the grid within their corporate limits and it is wildly unpopular with the citizens that stay on the grid. After all do you persecute people for not having a land line pho

  5. This doesn’t mean that it’s not possible or even perhaps reasonable to build a system capable of totally coping with 9 months of the year without burning fossil fuels and then bring the natural gas based plants back on line for 3 months. Ever since air-conditioners were invented there has been a big need for extra energy in the Summer. Given enough batteries to buffer the output of solar power it’s fairly good solution for this extra seasonal demand. In the Winter there would be some power coming in from the solar panels so there would actually be a need for less natural gas based generation that is now required. We’ll probably never get to 100% renewable power generation but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to build the system with most renewable capacity that is reasonable at the given time.

  6. You have to remember that there is this little annual event called Winter and during it there is less sunshine and there are more weather events that involve a lot of clouds? Now, I suppose that it might be possible to build enough batteries to get through a few extra days of clouds, but I doubt your batteries will be big enough to ever totally cope with Winter itself.

  7. This doesn’t mean that it’s not possible or even perhaps reasonable to build a system capable of totally coping with 9 months of the year without burning fossil fuels and then bring the natural gas based plants back on line for 3 months. Ever since air-conditioners were invented there has been a big need for extra energy in the Summer. Given enough batteries to buffer the output of solar power it’s fairly good solution for this extra seasonal demand. In the Winter there would be some power coming in from the solar panels so there would actually be a need for less natural gas based generation that is now required. We’ll probably never get to 100{22800fc54956079738b58e74e4dcd846757aa319aad70fcf90c97a58f3119a12} renewable power generation but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to build the system with most renewable capacity that is reasonable at the given time.

  8. You have to remember that there is this little annual event called Winter and during it there is less sunshine and there are more weather events that involve a lot of clouds? Now I suppose that it might be possible to build enough batteries to get through a few extra days of clouds but I doubt your batteries will be big enough to ever totally cope with Winter itself.

  9. Sorry I didn’t know I couldn’t post links. I just Googled “is it legal to live off grid” and found several articles. The short answer is that some cities do require that you are connected to some or all utilities in order to have an occupancy permit and they can and will prosecute you if you try living off the grid. I don’t think it happens often and in my experience you try to work with the officials instead of being difficult you can usually make arrangements.

  10. Sorry I didn’t know I couldn’t post links. I just Googled is it legal to live off grid”” and found several articles. The short answer is that some cities do require that you are connected to some or all utilities in order to have an occupancy permit and they can and will prosecute you if you try living off the grid. I don’t think it happens often and in my experience you try to work with the officials instead of being difficult you can usually make arrangements.”””

  11. A significant cost of the grid goes away in the cheap storage scenario, though. Reliable wires are significantly more expensive than just the generation for many customers. If your power goes out because of a failed line and it doesn’t get fixed until the next day, you likely wouldn’t even notice because you can run off of yours and your neighbors’ intraday battery storage. On top of that many lines are rated for peak use, where with cheap storage they can be rated for average use over 24 hours (easily a 3x difference, probably more). So your grid connection fee is going to be so low you’re not going to disconnect. The power grid will stick around, it will just be much more unreliable (which is fine, since localized generation and storage picks up the slack).

  12. A significant cost of the grid goes away in the cheap storage scenario though. Reliable wires are significantly more expensive than just the generation for many customers. If your power goes out because of a failed line and it doesn’t get fixed until the next day you likely wouldn’t even notice because you can run off of yours and your neighbors’ intraday battery storage. On top of that many lines are rated for peak use where with cheap storage they can be rated for average use over 24 hours (easily a 3x difference probably more).So your grid connection fee is going to be so low you’re not going to disconnect. The power grid will stick around it will just be much more unreliable (which is fine since localized generation and storage picks up the slack).

  13. See if this can get you to the articles. https: // offgridworld .com/ off-grid-living-is-illegal-sort-of/ https: // www . theinertia .com/ environment /apparently-its-illegal-to-live-off-the-grid-2/ https: // www . linkedin .com /pulse/off-grid-living-illegal-lincoln-deane If the links don’t work google “Robin Speronis in florida”. She was prosecuted, but found innocent for not being connected to electricity. Again I don’t think this happens very often. I have no way to know how often, but some people have been prosecuted for disconnecting from power utilities. My guess is that if you try to work with the city they would usually let you disconnect. Thank you for the discussion.

  14. See if this can get you to the articles. https: // offgridworld .com/ off-grid-living-is-illegal-sort-of/https: // www . theinertia .com/ environment /apparently-its-illegal-to-live-off-the-grid-2/https: // www . linkedin .com /pulse/off-grid-living-illegal-lincoln-deaneIf the links don’t work google Robin Speronis in florida””. She was prosecuted”” but found innocent for not being connected to electricity. Again I don’t think this happens very often. I have no way to know how often”” but some people have been prosecuted for disconnecting from power utilities. My guess is that if you try to work with the city they would usually let you disconnect. Thank you for the discussion.”””

  15. See if this can get you to the articles. https: // offgridworld .com/ off-grid-living-is-illegal-sort-of/ https: // www . theinertia .com/ environment /apparently-its-illegal-to-live-off-the-grid-2/ https: // www . linkedin .com /pulse/off-grid-living-illegal-lincoln-deane If the links don’t work google “Robin Speronis in florida”. She was prosecuted, but found innocent for not being connected to electricity. Again I don’t think this happens very often. I have no way to know how often, but some people have been prosecuted for disconnecting from power utilities. My guess is that if you try to work with the city they would usually let you disconnect. Thank you for the discussion.

  16. See if this can get you to the articles. https: // offgridworld .com/ off-grid-living-is-illegal-sort-of/https: // www . theinertia .com/ environment /apparently-its-illegal-to-live-off-the-grid-2/https: // www . linkedin .com /pulse/off-grid-living-illegal-lincoln-deaneIf the links don’t work google Robin Speronis in florida””. She was prosecuted”” but found innocent for not being connected to electricity. Again I don’t think this happens very often. I have no way to know how often”” but some people have been prosecuted for disconnecting from power utilities. My guess is that if you try to work with the city they would usually let you disconnect. Thank you for the discussion.”””

  17. A significant cost of the grid goes away in the cheap storage scenario, though. Reliable wires are significantly more expensive than just the generation for many customers. If your power goes out because of a failed line and it doesn’t get fixed until the next day, you likely wouldn’t even notice because you can run off of yours and your neighbors’ intraday battery storage. On top of that many lines are rated for peak use, where with cheap storage they can be rated for average use over 24 hours (easily a 3x difference, probably more). So your grid connection fee is going to be so low you’re not going to disconnect. The power grid will stick around, it will just be much more unreliable (which is fine, since localized generation and storage picks up the slack).

  18. A significant cost of the grid goes away in the cheap storage scenario though. Reliable wires are significantly more expensive than just the generation for many customers. If your power goes out because of a failed line and it doesn’t get fixed until the next day you likely wouldn’t even notice because you can run off of yours and your neighbors’ intraday battery storage. On top of that many lines are rated for peak use where with cheap storage they can be rated for average use over 24 hours (easily a 3x difference probably more).So your grid connection fee is going to be so low you’re not going to disconnect. The power grid will stick around it will just be much more unreliable (which is fine since localized generation and storage picks up the slack).

  19. See if this can get you to the articles.

    https: // offgridworld .com/ off-grid-living-is-illegal-sort-of/

    https: // www . theinertia .com/ environment /apparently-its-illegal-to-live-off-the-grid-2/

    https: // www . linkedin .com /pulse/off-grid-living-illegal-lincoln-deane

    If the links don’t work google “Robin Speronis in florida”. She was prosecuted, but found innocent for not being connected to electricity.

    Again I don’t think this happens very often. I have no way to know how often, but some people have been prosecuted for disconnecting from power utilities. My guess is that if you try to work with the city they would usually let you disconnect.

    Thank you for the discussion.

  20. A significant cost of the grid goes away in the cheap storage scenario, though. Reliable wires are significantly more expensive than just the generation for many customers. If your power goes out because of a failed line and it doesn’t get fixed until the next day, you likely wouldn’t even notice because you can run off of yours and your neighbors’ intraday battery storage. On top of that many lines are rated for peak use, where with cheap storage they can be rated for average use over 24 hours (easily a 3x difference, probably more).

    So your grid connection fee is going to be so low you’re not going to disconnect. The power grid will stick around, it will just be much more unreliable (which is fine, since localized generation and storage picks up the slack).

  21. Sorry I didn’t know I couldn’t post links. I just Googled “is it legal to live off grid” and found several articles. The short answer is that some cities do require that you are connected to some or all utilities in order to have an occupancy permit and they can and will prosecute you if you try living off the grid. I don’t think it happens often and in my experience you try to work with the officials instead of being difficult you can usually make arrangements.

  22. Sorry I didn’t know I couldn’t post links. I just Googled is it legal to live off grid”” and found several articles. The short answer is that some cities do require that you are connected to some or all utilities in order to have an occupancy permit and they can and will prosecute you if you try living off the grid. I don’t think it happens often and in my experience you try to work with the officials instead of being difficult you can usually make arrangements.”””

  23. This doesn’t mean that it’s not possible or even perhaps reasonable to build a system capable of totally coping with 9 months of the year without burning fossil fuels and then bring the natural gas based plants back on line for 3 months. Ever since air-conditioners were invented there has been a big need for extra energy in the Summer. Given enough batteries to buffer the output of solar power it’s fairly good solution for this extra seasonal demand. In the Winter there would be some power coming in from the solar panels so there would actually be a need for less natural gas based generation that is now required. We’ll probably never get to 100% renewable power generation but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to build the system with most renewable capacity that is reasonable at the given time.

  24. This doesn’t mean that it’s not possible or even perhaps reasonable to build a system capable of totally coping with 9 months of the year without burning fossil fuels and then bring the natural gas based plants back on line for 3 months. Ever since air-conditioners were invented there has been a big need for extra energy in the Summer. Given enough batteries to buffer the output of solar power it’s fairly good solution for this extra seasonal demand. In the Winter there would be some power coming in from the solar panels so there would actually be a need for less natural gas based generation that is now required. We’ll probably never get to 100{22800fc54956079738b58e74e4dcd846757aa319aad70fcf90c97a58f3119a12} renewable power generation but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to build the system with most renewable capacity that is reasonable at the given time.

  25. You have to remember that there is this little annual event called Winter and during it there is less sunshine and there are more weather events that involve a lot of clouds? Now, I suppose that it might be possible to build enough batteries to get through a few extra days of clouds, but I doubt your batteries will be big enough to ever totally cope with Winter itself.

  26. You have to remember that there is this little annual event called Winter and during it there is less sunshine and there are more weather events that involve a lot of clouds? Now I suppose that it might be possible to build enough batteries to get through a few extra days of clouds but I doubt your batteries will be big enough to ever totally cope with Winter itself.

  27. Sorry I didn’t know I couldn’t post links. I just Googled “is it legal to live off grid” and found several articles. The short answer is that some cities do require that you are connected to some or all utilities in order to have an occupancy permit and they can and will prosecute you if you try living off the grid. I don’t think it happens often and in my experience you try to work with the officials instead of being difficult you can usually make arrangements.

  28. This doesn’t mean that it’s not possible or even perhaps reasonable to build a system capable of totally coping with 9 months of the year without burning fossil fuels and then bring the natural gas based plants back on line for 3 months. Ever since air-conditioners were invented there has been a big need for extra energy in the Summer. Given enough batteries to buffer the output of solar power it’s fairly good solution for this extra seasonal demand. In the Winter there would be some power coming in from the solar panels so there would actually be a need for less natural gas based generation that is now required. We’ll probably never get to 100% renewable power generation but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to build the system with most renewable capacity that is reasonable at the given time.

  29. You have to remember that there is this little annual event called Winter and during it there is less sunshine and there are more weather events that involve a lot of clouds? Now, I suppose that it might be possible to build enough batteries to get through a few extra days of clouds, but I doubt your batteries will be big enough to ever totally cope with Winter itself.

  30. Is there a source for the “cities now persecute people who live off the grid within their corporate limits”? Because 2 minutes of googling just brought up stories where either: 1. People were being told they couldn’t, for example, put in a large wind turbine in a suburban backyard, for obvious noise and appearance reasons. 2. People had solar systems that were hooked up to the grid with the benefit of using the grid as a free and infinitely sized battery. And were then upset when this means that when the grid turned off, their system was turned off too. They weren’t trying to “live off the grid”, they were trying to “free ride off the grid” and remarkably this meant that their system wasn’t independent.

  31. Is there a source for the cities now persecute people who live off the grid within their corporate limits””?Because 2 minutes of googling just brought up stories where either:1. People were being told they couldn’t”” for example put in a large wind turbine in a suburban backyard for obvious noise and appearance reasons.2. People had solar systems that were hooked up to the grid with the benefit of using the grid as a free and infinitely sized battery. And were then upset when this means that when the grid turned off”” their system was turned off too. They weren’t trying to “”””live off the grid”””””””” they were trying to “”””free ride off the grid”””” and remarkably this meant that their system wasn’t independent.”””

  32. I’ll happily put my off the grid batteries in their own little steel shack, if they cost half what lithium batteries do per kWh. Has anyone else considered that really cheap storage batteries would destroy the current business model of electrical utilities? Remember what happened to the old twisted pair home phone companies? The cost of PV almost anywhere in the US is now low enough to provide my energy, and in some parts of the country, wind is allegedly cheaper, or is that just for gargantuan windmills? Inverter prices are getting fairly reasonable, and more and more companies are coming out with one size fits all combined grid compliant/stand alone inverters, and battery chargers/controllers in one package. SMA just announced a very nice product within the last week. The last part of the puzzle is cheap, reliable batteries, and a simple alternator that can charge batteries during very cloudy periods. The OSFA inverters makes it easy to install everything while you have an electrical service, see how long you can go without actually using any utility power, and once you’re comfortable with the situation, cut the electrical cord. You’ll probably see the southern California utilities die first, since the citizenry loves solar, and the electric rates are very high. Early adopters will drop off first. It will be hard for the watermelons to tell people they can’t have their own ultra green solar electricity, and no naughty nuclear thrown in. As the number of subscribers drop, the cost of the distribution network will remain, and then there is the whole stranded costs thing, so rates will have to go up, meaning more people will cut that cord. If enough people want to leave the grid, will it be possible for governments to maintain laws against it? Some cities now persecute people who live off the grid within their corporate limits, and it is wildly unpopular with the citizens that stay on the grid. After all, do you persecute people for not having a l

  33. I’ll happily put my off the grid batteries in their own little steel shack if they cost half what lithium batteries do per kWh. Has anyone else considered that really cheap storage batteries would destroy the current business model of electrical utilities? Remember what happened to the old twisted pair home phone companies? The cost of PV almost anywhere in the US is now low enough to provide my energy and in some parts of the country wind is allegedly cheaper or is that just for gargantuan windmills? Inverter prices are getting fairly reasonable and more and more companies are coming out with one size fits all combined grid compliant/stand alone inverters and battery chargers/controllers in one package. SMA just announced a very nice product within the last week. The last part of the puzzle is cheap reliable batteries and a simple alternator that can charge batteries during very cloudy periods.The OSFA inverters makes it easy to install everything while you have an electrical service see how long you can go without actually using any utility power and once you’re comfortable with the situation cut the electrical cord.You’ll probably see the southern California utilities die first since the citizenry loves solar and the electric rates are very high. Early adopters will drop off first. It will be hard for the watermelons to tell people they can’t have their own ultra green solar electricity and no naughty nuclear thrown in. As the number of subscribers drop the cost of the distribution network will remain and then there is the whole stranded costs thing so rates will have to go up meaning more people will cut that cord.If enough people want to leave the grid will it be possible for governments to maintain laws against it? Some cities now persecute people who live off the grid within their corporate limits and it is wildly unpopular with the citizens that stay on the grid. After all do you persecute people for not having a land line pho

  34. Is there a source for the “cities now persecute people who live off the grid within their corporate limits”?

    Because 2 minutes of googling just brought up stories where either:
    1. People were being told they couldn’t, for example, put in a large wind turbine in a suburban backyard, for obvious noise and appearance reasons.
    2. People had solar systems that were hooked up to the grid with the benefit of using the grid as a free and infinitely sized battery. And were then upset when this means that when the grid turned off, their system was turned off too. They weren’t trying to “live off the grid”, they were trying to “free ride off the grid” and remarkably this meant that their system wasn’t independent.

  35. I’ll happily put my off the grid batteries in their own little steel shack, if they cost half what lithium batteries do per kWh. Has anyone else considered that really cheap storage batteries would destroy the current business model of electrical utilities? Remember what happened to the old twisted pair home phone companies?
    The cost of PV almost anywhere in the US is now low enough to provide my energy, and in some parts of the country, wind is allegedly cheaper, or is that just for gargantuan windmills? Inverter prices are getting fairly reasonable, and more and more companies are coming out with one size fits all combined grid compliant/stand alone inverters, and battery chargers/controllers in one package. SMA just announced a very nice product within the last week. The last part of the puzzle is cheap, reliable batteries, and a simple alternator that can charge batteries during very cloudy periods.
    The OSFA inverters makes it easy to install everything while you have an electrical service, see how long you can go without actually using any utility power, and once you’re comfortable with the situation, cut the electrical cord.
    You’ll probably see the southern California utilities die first, since the citizenry loves solar, and the electric rates are very high. Early adopters will drop off first. It will be hard for the watermelons to tell people they can’t have their own ultra green solar electricity, and no naughty nuclear thrown in. As the number of subscribers drop, the cost of the distribution network will remain, and then there is the whole stranded costs thing, so rates will have to go up, meaning more people will cut that cord.
    If enough people want to leave the grid, will it be possible for governments to maintain laws against it? Some cities now persecute people who live off the grid within their corporate limits, and it is wildly unpopular with the citizens that stay on the grid. After all, do you persecute people for not having a land line phone? How about not having a gasoline burning car. These people have electricity, they just make their own. Do you steal someones home because of that, and that is what happens unless they knuckle under to the city. Sometimes everyone else does not have electricity, and the off grid people do.
    I suppose the democrats will claim that Russians, and global warming are responsible for people abandoning the grid, rather than Adam Smith’s invisible hand, and lock up the cord cutters.

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