VALUE IN STORE

SODIUM-ION BATTERIES ARE CHEAPER THAN THEIR LITHIUM COUNTERPARTS. CAN THEY BECOME AS POWERFUL?

- DAMIEN MARTIN

With EV production and the green energy revolution hitting their strides, lithium-ion batteries have been supplying the power for a lot of new products. Lithium is abundant, light, and energy-dense. It has a lot going for it, and demand for lithium-ion batteries is skyrocketing. There might be a challenger emerging to knock lithium off its pedestal. Sodium is not quite as abundant, but it’s a lot easier to extract. In a decade or so down the road, we could see sodium-ion batteries give lithium-ions a run for their money.

LITHIUM VS. SODIUM

There’s a lot of lithium in the ground, no doubt, but getting it out and ready for use in batteries isn’t so easy. There’s also the challenge of where lithium is found. Chile has the most reserves at 8 or 9 million tons, with Australia a distant second. Argentina and China are next in the rankings. When it comes to productivity, however, Australia is far and away the world leader, producing about three times what Chile does annually. The U.S. is behind those countries in lithium reserves and has only one active lithium mine.

The high demand combined with the extraction difficulties has made lithium expensive. At one point in 2022, lithium carbonate cost more than $80,000 per ton, though that has dropped significantly. When it comes to sodium carbonate, or soda ash, costs are around $3,000 per ton and about 90% of the world’s readily mined reserves are in the U.S.