With the SIB:DE Entwicklung funding project, the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) has established the largest German consortium to date focusing on sodium-ion battery cells. Twenty-five partners from academia and industry are working together to develop a sustainable, safe and cost-effective alternative to lithium-ion batteries. The focus is on producing large-scale, market-ready cells and assessing their recyclability. The aim is to quickly convert research results into industrial applications.
Battery cells are an indispensable part of the mobility transition the EU wants to achieve by 2030. They also play a crucial role in integrating large amounts of renewable electricity into the power grid and are essential for an uninterrupted power supply when building 5G telecoms stations.
From lithium-ion to sodium-ion battery cells
Currently, lithium-ion batteries are the most widely used energy storage devices. However, resource dependency and scarcity pose significant challenges to the lithium-ion battery market. Therefore, there is an urgent need for comparable alternatives for both mobile and stationary energy storage. Sodium is considered a particularly non-critical raw material; it is widely available, inexpensive and considered very safe. Sodium ion batteries can thus play a key role in ensuring a stable and sustainable European energy supply.
Production of sodium-ion battery cells
The sodium-ion battery (SIB) is a forward-looking storage technology that offers an attractive complement or alternative to currently leading lithium-ion batteries in terms of sustainability, security of supply and cost structure. As a raw material, sodium is significantly more readily available, cheaper and more evenly distributed around the world than lithium, cobalt or nickel, which can reduce the current strong geopolitical dependencies and strengthen the reliability of future energy systems. Sodium-ion battery cells are expected to play an important role.
Suitability sodium-ion technology
The SIB:DE Entwicklung project therefore aims to evaluate the suitability of sodium-ion technology for a sustainable energy and mobility transition and achieve rapid industrial implementation to catch up with the Asian market. The aim is to establish a complete ecosystem for the production of sodium-ion battery cells in Germany and Europe. In particular, the focus is on rapidly enabling the participating industrial partners to produce battery cells on a large scale, in a market-ready and competitive manner.
Strong collaboration between research and industry
The project consortium for the SIB:DE Entwicklunt initiative consists of 11 industrial partners and 14 academic partners, as well as an extensive group of associated partners from SIB:DE Forschung and an industrial advisory board. Under the coordination of EDAG Production Solutions GmbH & Co. KG, this forms the largest German network dedicated to sodium-ion battery technology. SIB:DE Entwicklung is part of the SIB:DE initiative, which has already spawned the SIB:DE Forschung project. The large industrial advisory board demonstrates the interest in sodium ion cell development across Europe. Only through this close integration of expertise from science and industry and the efficient cooperation between industrial and research partners is a fast and sustainable scale-up to market penetration of sodium-ion battery cells possible.
Sustainable battery value chain
The national experts in the field of battery cell production and recycling are united in the SIB:DE Entwicklung project and are jointly and collectively pursuing the overarching goal of a technologically sovereign, competitive and sustainable battery value chain for sodium-ion technology, as well as the creation of a complete ecosystem for the production of sodium-ion batteries.
Opening photo sodium-ion battery cells: Pilot system for coating battery electrodes - the bridge between research and mass production. (Photo: UniverCell Holding GmbH) Source message: Fraunhofer IFAM
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Project partners:
- EDAG Production Solutions GmbH & Co. KG (Coordinator)
- acp-systems AG
- Coperion GmbH
- cylib GmbH
- EAS Batteries GmbH
- E-Lyte Innovations GmbH
- Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM
- Fraunhofer Research Institution for Battery Cell Production FFB
- Fraunhofer Institute for Casting, Composite and Processing Technology IGCV
- Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS
- Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA
- Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology ISIT
- Fraunhofer Institute for Materials and Beam Technology IWS
- Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU
- FUCHS LUBRICANTS Germany GmbH
- GROB-WERKE GmbH & Co. KG
- Jungheinrich AG
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) - wbk Institute for Production Engineering
- RWTH Aachen - Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Drives - ISEA
- Technical University of Braunschweig - Battery LabFactory Braunschweig - BLB
- Technical University of Munich - Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management - iwb
- Technical University of Munich - Chair of Electrical Energy Storage Technology - EES
- UniverCell Holding GmbH
- VARTA Storage GmbH
- Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research - ZSW - Production Research - ECP
