Natron collaborates with Clarios on first mass manufacturing of Sodium-ion batteries

Natron Vitality, a producer of sodium-ion batteries, and Clarios Worldwide Inc., a producer of low-voltage superior battery applied sciences for mobility, will collaborate to fabricate the primary mass-produced sodium-ion batteries.

The Clarios Meadowbrook facility will develop into the world’s largest sodium-ion battery plant when mass manufacturing begins in 2023. This collaboration will place the USA on the forefront of sodium-ion battery manufacturing.

Natron has spent 10 years creating sodium-ion battery chemistry for mass manufacturing. In 2020, ARPA-E awarded the corporate $20 million by way of the SCALEUP program to extend manufacturing of its sodium-ion batteries by 30x. (Earlier put up.) In 2021, Natron launched the world’s first UL-listed sodium-ion battery product.

A number of fortune 500 firms have validated Natron’s know-how by way of unbiased testing and real-world deployments. Critically, Natron’s sodium-ion batteries don’t comprise lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, or different minerals which have pushed latest pricing volatility of the lithium-ion provide chain. With out battle minerals, dependency on overseas mining initiatives or scarce supplies, clients will be assured of the provision of Natron’s batteries at steady pricing. Moreover, Natron’s sodium-ion batteries don’t expertise thermal runaway, making them secure for transport and disposal with out the danger of fireside.

At the moment, Natron’s batteries are used primarily for important energy purposes resembling information facilities and telecom networks. Future purposes can also embody electrical autos and grid power storage.

Natron’s batteries are manufactured utilizing the identical instruments and gear used for lithium-ion manufacturing. This similarity in manufacturing necessities allows Natron and Clarios to leverage a portion of the Clarios Meadowbrook lithium-ion facility for sodium-ion manufacturing, at a decrease price and quicker time to market in comparison with constructing a brand new manufacturing facility.

Underneath this settlement, electrodes and huge format cells based mostly on Natron’s proprietary Prussian blue electrode sodium-ion chemistry can be manufactured in an current plant owned by Clarios in Holland, Michigan. The Clarios Meadowbrook plant was constructed as a part of the American Restoration and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) program signed into regulation by President Obama and has produced automotive lithium-ion cells for the previous decade.

With help from the US Division of Vitality’s ARPA-E company by way of the SCALEUP program, Natron will set up new cell meeting gear within the Clarios Meadowbrook plant to allow mass manufacturing of sodium-ion cells for its clients within the industrial energy market.

This undertaking marks the start of a brand new period for Natron, through which we transfer from product improvement to serving our clients at an enormous scale. Natron is grateful for the continued help from ARPA-E and Clarios which has helped make this undertaking doable.

—Colin Wessells, Natron’s founder and CEO