It is reported that recently the sodium-ion battery startup company - Zhongke Haina has undergone industrial and commercial changes, and the new shareholders in addition to VC/PE institutions such as Haisong Capital and Aggregate Capital, as well as Huawei's Hubble Investment, subscribed 4.12666 million yuan. An investor revealed that the valuation of Zhongke Hai sodium has exceeded 5 billion yuan, an increase of more than 800% compared with March last year.
In 2017, Zhongke HaiNa was officially established, which is the first company in China to focus on the development of sodium-ion batteries. Hu Yongsheng, the founder of Zhongke Haina, has another identity as a researcher at the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. What makes a sodium-ion battery, favored by researchers and capital, different?
Unveiling the "True Face of Lushan" of Sodium-Ion Batteries
A sodium-ion battery is a secondary battery that relies primarily on the movement of sodium ions between the positive and negative electrodes to work. Sodium-ion batteries mainly include sodium-sulfur batteries, sodium-salt batteries, sodium-air batteries, organic sodium-ion batteries, and aqueous sodium-ion batteries. Sodium-ion batteries and lithium-ion batteries work on the same principle, the process is similar, and it is possible to achieve compatibility with lithium-ion battery production equipment and processes, and the production line can also be quickly switched, so as to achieve the rapid layout of sodium-ion battery production capacity.
The raw material of sodium-ion batteries is sodium salt, which is stable in nature and therefore has high safety. Compared with lithium resources, sodium resources are more abundant, in addition to sodium chloride, sodium salts have sodium carbonate, sodium nitrate, sodium sulfate, sodium thiosulfate and other compounds, so the raw materials of sodium-ion batteries will not be as insufficient as lithium batteries. In contrast, sodium-ion batteries have lower costs, better magnification performance, longer battery life and higher safety performance, and have broad prospects for future development. Although sodium ions have various advantages, their disadvantages are still an important factor affecting their large-scale production.
First, there is no obvious price advantage
The cascade utilization lithium battery that has been recycled from waste lithium batteries is inexpensive and the supply is increasing, and the market for sodium-ion batteries has been further compressed. According to the data of the sodium-ion battery research and development enterprise Zhongkehaina, the cost of raw materials for sodium-ion batteries after industrialization is only 0.29 yuan / watt-hour, which has obvious advantages compared with the price of lithium iron phosphate of 0.43 yuan / watt-hour, and it is expected that the actual raw material cost will be reduced by 30%-40% compared with lithium iron phosphate batteries. However, at present, sodium-ion batteries have not been widely used, and the upstream supply chain is not mature, so the cost advantage is not obvious at present.
Second, there is an inferior energy density
In energy storage batteries, the energy density of sodium-ion batteries is not high. The energy density of sodium-ion batteries is about 4 times that of lead-acid batteries, and it is expected to be gradually replaced in the field of lead-acid battery applications. Replace lead-acid batteries in the fields of electric two-wheelers, tricycles, low-speed vehicles, small power and low-end energy storage, which in turn will drive the growth of sodium-ion battery market space.
Compared with lithium-ion batteries, there is still an energy density disadvantage, the energy density of sodium-ion batteries is 20% lower than that of lithium-ion batteries, and it is difficult to replace lithium-ion batteries in new energy vehicle power batteries and electronic product batteries such as mobile phones. According to industry insiders, in the long run, the rigid demand for lithium in the battery field will not change, but in the future, sodium-ion batteries are expected to gradually replace lead-acid batteries as a differentiated supplement to lithium batteries to reduce excessive dependence on lithium resources.
Third, the development of the industrial chain is incomplete
Although many researchers believe that after the large-scale production of sodium-ion batteries, the cost will be lower than that of lithium batteries. However, at present, sodium-ion batteries have not yet achieved large-scale production. The industrial chain is not mature enough, the formula of sodium-ion batteries has not undergone enough iterations, the performance potential is not excavated enough, and there are more potential performance defects.
Some researchers pointed out that "although there is a wave of discussion about sodium-ion batteries in the market, but with the current research and development progress, more emphasis should be placed on technology research and development." Before the industrialization conditions are ripe, the market should not rush to lay out sodium-ion batteries. ”。
Leading enterprises have upgraded their technology and enterprises have flocked to it
Although many professionals believe that the development of sodium-ion batteries is still in the early stages of development, there are still some technical problems that need to be solved urgently, and it will take time to truly large-scale industrial applications. However, the heat of sodium-ion batteries has remained high.
Starting from 2021, the sodium-ion battery industry has attracted much attention. It is understood that at present, including Ningde Times, Zhongke Hai Sodium, Sunwoda, Penghui Energy, Sodium Innovation Energy and many other battery companies have laid out sodium-ion batteries, Ronbay Technology, Grimme and other material companies have also carried out research and development and industrialization exploration of sodium-ion battery cathode materials.
On June 27, 2021, the world's first 1MWh sodium ion energy storage system was officially put into operation in Taiyuan, Shanxi. The project is jointly built by Huayang Group and ZhongkeHaina Company, and can be widely used in large-scale energy storage devices such as low-speed electric vehicles, home energy storage, renewable energy access, 5G communication base stations, and data centers.
In July 2021, CATL released its first generation of sodium-ion batteries, and the industry's attention to sodium-ion battery technology has heated up rapidly. According to the Ningde era, the energy density of its sodium-ion battery cell monomer reaches 160 watt-hours / kg, and it can be filled with 80% of the electricity in 15 minutes at room temperature, and the low temperature environment of minus 20 degrees Celsius can achieve more than 90% discharge retention rate. In February 2022, CATL said on the investor interactive platform that the industrialization layout of sodium-ion batteries has been launched, and a basic industrial chain will be formed in 2023.
At the same time, Sunwoda said that it has a number of patents such as sodium supplementation method for sodium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries and their preparation methods.
On August 25, 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology replied to the "Proposal on Vigorously Developing Sodium-Ion Batteries in the Mainland" of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference: Cost-effective sodium-ion batteries are expected to become an important supplement to lithium-ion batteries, especially in the field of stationary energy storage. After the industry giants took the lead in layout and the national ministries and commissions spoke out, the scale of sodium-ion battery industrialization skyrocketed.
On November 12, 2021, the prototype of the world's first 100kWh sodium-ion battery digital energy storage system was successfully energized. The project is one of the energy storage projects in the new energy storage verification platform of the "Source Network Load Storage" technology research and development test base in Ulanchabu, which is implemented in two stages, the first phase completes the research and development of the 100kWh sodium-ion battery digital energy storage prototype, the second stage completes the research and development of new sodium-ion batteries and the 3MW/1.5MWh sodium-ion battery digital energy storage system, and finally plans to build the world's largest sodium-ion battery energy storage power station.
At the end of 2021, China Three Gorges Group reached a cooperation with Zhongke Hai Na and Fuyang Municipal People's Government to jointly build the world's first large-scale mass production line of sodium-ion batteries, with a production capacity planned at 5GWh.
In January 2022, the Energy Storage Technology Research Department of Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences independently developed a 48V/10Ah phosphate-based sodium-ion battery energy storage system.
In March 2022, Shanxi Xinyang Clean Energy's largest sodium-ion battery planning project in China was successfully delivered, and the first sodium-ion battery production line of the project entered the final stage of equipment commissioning, which will be trial production at the end of March. It is understood that Shanxi Xinyang Clean Energy is a subsidiary of Huayang Group, which is also the second time that Huayang Group has set foot in sodium-ion batteries after cooperating with Zhongke Haina to build the world's first 1GW sodium-ion battery energy storage system.
In 2022, the Ningde era has laid out anode-free metal battery technology and applied for a patent, which is reported to be applied to the next generation of sodium-ion batteries. This means that the energy density of the next generation of sodium-ion batteries announced by the Ningde era at the sodium-ion battery conference will be achieved.
With the growing scale of sodium-ion batteries, many people in the industry are very optimistic about its prospects, and even some people think that sodium-ion batteries replace lithium batteries are just around the corner, and emerging technologies are emerging, subverting the existing technology pattern and creating a rich imagination space for the future development of the new energy industry.