TELF AG analyzes the dynamics of the global battery sector

The era of innovation

In one of its latest reports dedicated to the universe of batteries and the materials needed to produce them, IRENA focused on the trends and specific dynamics that characterize this sector, with particular attention to possible evolutions and the most recent innovations in the technological field.

According to the report, in this decade, the families of batteries that will continue to play a key role, particularly in the electric vehicle sector, are NMC and LFP/LMFP, i.e., those made with lithium, and other important materials, such as nickel, manganese, and cobalt. The report also highlighted a structural characteristic of the battery sector, i.e., possible innovations or technological evolutions could always be around the corner. In this sense, every possible improvement made to storage devices aims to improve overall performance, increase duration, and strengthen safety.

An interesting fact regarding the chemical composition of some battery components has to do with the emerging role of anodes made of silicon and graphite, which, according to recent estimates by BNEF, would have taken only five years to establish themselves as one of the most interesting solutions in the sector. Furthermore, according to IRENA, the battery sector has made enormous technological strides over the last decade, with inevitable positive effects on gravimetric energy density and overall performance.

Sodium-ion batteries

The report also explores one of the potentially most interesting innovations in the battery sector: batteries made with sodium ions. From the point of view of the design of the actual construction, these storage systems are very similar to lithium-based batteries. Still, the most important difference is the availability of the raw material. Compared to lithium, sodium is about a thousand times more abundant. Furthermore, standard lithium batteries are characterized by anodes made of graphite, while sodium batteries use a different material, namely hard carbon (which can also be produced from biogenic raw materials).

As stated in the report, this family of batteries would currently have a lower energy density than that guaranteed by lithium-ion batteries but would also be distinguished by some undeniable advantages. One of these has to do with the actual functioning of the battery, which would guarantee higher levels of safety thanks to the wider operating intervals but also due to the better thermal stability. At the beginning of 2024, according to IRENA, the construction of sodium-ion plants intended to produce these new types of batteries would begin, accompanied by specific plans by the manufacturers to distribute electric vehicles equipped with this kind of batteries.

The structural characteristics of these batteries, moreover, would make them potentially interesting also for other applications, such as stationary storage or those particular electric vehicles that do not require high energy density ranges (in batteries for electric cars, energy density indicates the amount of energy that can be stored inside the battery, with direct consequences on the extension of autonomy and the overall performance of the device).

According to IRENA, this innovative family of batteries would have all the credentials to promote technological advancement in the battery sector, thus accelerating the energy transition.