Saltwater Batteries, A Bright Future For Energy Storage
Sodium-ion batteries, or saltwater batteries as they are sometimes more descriptively called — have been coming out of the lab and into something nearer to commercial production. One nice thing about these batteries is that they are low cost, high safety and very environmentally friendly.
How Saltwater Batteries Work
Saltwater batteries rely on the use of sodium ions, which are low in cost can be found plentifully. The battery is made up of a positive (cathode) electrode, a negative (anode) electrode and an electrolyte which is based on saltwater. Sodium ions are transported through the separator during discharge from anode to cathode, and electricity is produced. During charge, the reverse happens as well.
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Saltwater Batteries Pros
Cheap: Saltwater is abundant and cheap, which makes saltwaterbatteries a low-cost proposition for grid-scale energy storage.
Better Safety: Because saltwaterbatteries do not use flammable electrolytes, they inherently have a greater safety profile than lithium-ion.
Environmental: Saltwaterbatteries have a much lower impact on the environment than lithium ion as the materials used are abundant and far less toxic.
SALTWATE BATTERIES, on account of long cycle life they have the ability to sustain large amount of charge-discharge cycles which makes them proper for Long-term energy storage.
Summary: Challenges and Prospects
While Saltwaterbatteries have many significant benefits, there still are a few pitfalls companies need to overcome:
Lower Energy Density – At present, the energy density remains rather low when compared to lithium-ion batteries and would therefore need larger storage devices for equivalent power.
Charging Time: Charging a saltwater battery will typically be slower than a LI based one.
Efforts are currently being done by researchers to combat all of these obstacles and improve on saltwaterbatteries. There are some potential solutions as: