German battery analytics software company Twaice has introduced an aging model for sodium-ion batteries. It claims this is the first simulation model for battery aging to be compatible with non-lithium batteries.
This expansion will give battery operators a valuable tool in understanding how best to deploy emerging sodium-ion batteries, it said.
“As the demand for energy storage continues to surge, innovative new options like sodium-ion are attracting the attention of battery operators, and we’re keen to help them better understand how to best deploy these new batteries,” said Michael Baumann, CEO of Twaice.
“We’ll continue innovating our simulation and analytics software to get the most out of lithium storage, but we also want to meet a demand for alternative batteries,” he added.
From a performance point of view, the energy density (90–150Wh/kg) is currently lower than that of lithium-ion batteries, for which a density of up to 200Wh/kg is expected in the future, it said. Twaice notes that sodium-ion batteries offer many of the advantages of lithium-ion batteries, for example superior environmental compatibility and abundant supply of raw material.
SMM Consulting (the consulting division of the Shanghai Metals Market) brought out a report on the potential of sodium-ion batteries in May. Chinese sodium battery expert Jared Zhu said that depending on different cathode applications, sodium batteries could be generally grouped as layered oxide, polyanion, and Prussian blue. All materials have their own advantages, he said.
Sodium batteries demonstrate a relatively prompt response speed, making them more suitable for deployment in power-based ESS markets like data centres (UPS). For automotive applications the major advantage is lower costs per vehicle.
