From ESS News
California-based startup Inlyte Energy has announced that its iron-sodium chemistry has demonstrated stable cycling in commercial-size cells, proving its readiness for scale-up.
The technology leverages the design of the sodium metal chloride battery and relies on abundantly available iron and sodium (table salt). Inlyte prides on the technology’s dual utilization, citing high efficiency for both daily cycling (4–10 hours) and affordability for long-duration storage (24+ hours).
Sodium metal chloride batteries were originally developed for electric vehicles in the 1980s and 1990s, but cost reductions and scale have been held back by their cost structure. Inlyte’s team is now optimizing this technology platform for long-duration energy storage, replacing nickel with iron in a bid to achieve cost reductions while maintaining high performance.
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A few KPIs like volumetric and gravimetric power density would be appreciated.
Also sodium is not table salt… that’s sodium chloride.
But *Nickel* iron (NiFe not NiMH) batteries are barely remembered or talked about despite the fact that the first car owned by Thomas Edison was a 1904 Baker Electric for which he and his engineers designed Nickel iron instead of lead-based batteries
Wikipedia re Nickel Iron batteries: “It is a very robust battery which is tolerant of abuse, (overcharge, overdischarge, and short-circuiting) and can have very long life even if so treated. It is often used in backup situations where it can be continuously charged and can last for more than 20 years. ”
Now imagine if Nikola Tesla had been passionate about batteries instead of -ironically – being barely interested in them and had succeeded in doubling or tripling the range/energy-density of NiFe batteries before he died in 1943 – the EV v ICE and energy-storage revolution might have kicked off 70-100 years ago.
(Paul G)