• Date 2025-02-26

The recent project "Sodium-Ion-Battery Deutschland-Forschung - SIB:DE FORSCHUNG", funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), aims to evaluate the suitability of sodium-ion battery technology (SIB) for the European energy and mobility transition. To this end, 21 national partners from science and industry are pooling their expertise from battery material development to the production of large-format cells to enable the fast transfer of research results into practical applications.

Battery cells are an indispensable part of the mobility transition agreed by the European Union by 2030. Lithium-ion batteries are currently the most used energy storage devices. However, the dependence and scarcity of raw materials poses a significant challenge for the lithium-ion battery market. Comparable alternatives are therefore urgently needed. Sodium is considered a particularly uncritical raw material, is readily available, inexpensive and is classified as very safe. Sodium-ion batteries can therefore play a key role in ensuring a stable and sustainable European energy supply.

However, despite similar electrical properties, lithium and sodium cannot simply be replaced. Chemical differences between these elements currently lead to technical challenges that result in faster aging of sodium batteries and impair their performance. The "SIB:DE FORSCHUNG" project therefore aims to identify SIB active materials that can be produced in a scalable way and offer competitive cell performance. To evaluate the results, an assessment matrix will be created that considers technological, economic and ecological factors for different material systems and processes.

More: Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM, Press Release, February 06, 2025

https://www.ifam.fraunhofer.de/en/Press_Releases/bmbf-project-sodium-ion-technology.html