Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) has embraced the advantages of sodium-lithium batteries to offer a unified end product integrating both technologies through individual cells, creating a hybrid package for high performance in use.
The sodium’s low temperatures without losing optimal and adequate performance have been combined with the lithium’s energy density and power to create a final product with high performance. In order to get to this result, however, the company dedicated years of research to make the batteries viable.
One of the drawbacks that CATL faced was to compensate for the high volume of sodium ions compared to lithium ions, which meant having to use highly demanding materials in order to maintain structural stability along with their kinetic properties, because when combining them, energy was lost, causing degradation problems in the charge and discharge process.
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After spending a long time trying to find an answer, CATL unveiled the first generation of sodium battery cells, modifying the components along with the structure to provide high performance at low temperatures, a fast charging system and thermal stability which was ” impossible” to crack in the past.
The company is confident about the promising results of sodium-ion cells, though on the other hand, they also claim that this technology is not capable of surpassing the performance of lithium-ion cells at the moment. During the ‘TechZone’ event, however, they stated that the biggest benefit comes when recharging them.
For comparison, these cells generate up to 160 Wh/kg, while the lithium-ion batteries used on a Tesla can reach up to 300 Wh/kg. The advantage lies in the low temperature, reaching 80% of their energy capacity in 15 minutes at ambient climate.
Besides, CATL batteries can perform at 90% in sub-zero temperatures, being a more than interesting project for those countries with freezing temperatures due to their strong winter periods.
What is CATL?
CATL is a Chinese company founded in 2011 with headquarters in Ningde, dedicated to developing energy solutions worldwide, and leading the lithium-ion battery sales in 2017, as the company revealed in its annual sales report.
The manufacturer finally aims to have a manufacturing sodium-ion batteries process by 2023, considering they currently want to continue discovering new aspects and boosting existing ones to raise the energy density up to 200 Wh/kg.
Written by | Ronald Ortega
