Sodium ion cells.

[native pepper]

Just spent a few days with some friends helping them put together a bank of 220AH sodium ion cells. They bought 16 cells and are running them in 12v configuration and cost $4400, plus are Aus made. They've had gel batteries for the last decade and became very frustrated because of the restrictions in needing to use old technology for fridges, no induction cooking and no a/c. Plus restrictions on their power usage.

Each cell weighs just over 4kg and can produce over 100amps continuously, with an expected life of over 4000 cycles. The recommended voltage range is from 1.5v- 3.95v. Because we've done no testing or experimenting, have no idea what the best voltage range should be, so have set the controllers to 2v-3.5v and will change it as they work out the proper long life parameters for these, but think that should be about right as we don't know what voltage the majority of energy is stored and how different to lifepo4 they are. We also installed their new induction cooktop and setup the A/C for the sparky to wire up and charge, was a full few days with never ending misty rain.

Last night we cooked with induction and my mate was glued to the control panel watching how the cells were handling it and has already declared he was going to buy another block of 16 cells in a couple of weeks. This morning after more drizzle, the sky cleared and out came the sun and he was amazed at how fast the cells charged, claiming it was faster than my lifepo4. But he does have 10kw of solar compared to my now 6kw and his lady was so wrapped she could finally use electric cooking and dump the expensive gas and wood stove, which is old and smokes, so she mostly used gas.

Was great to finally see them happy with their power system they've been waiting for a couple of years for the gel bank to collapse and it was struggling to provide more than lights, so the right time. If these sodium cells work well, will add them to my power system and have already ordered 2 cells, to experiment with.

My 120ah portable lifepo4 pack is getting close to 18 years old and a few months ago was starting to lose a bit of capacity I thought. But since I drained them down to 1.5v and them charged them to 14.4v, they are back to full capacity and acting like new. My house pack which is now 1200ah as moved the buses bank to the house is approach 17 years and shows no sign of dropping capacity.

Once I test the sodium cells, will put them in the bus and according got to the Manufacturers, the cells can be easily recycled and reused, as the planet consists of 68% salt water there is an abundance of materials. All we have to do is setup solar desalination plants, turn the salt into batteries and the water for general use. Would be great economics to do that in places which are struggling for water, including saline bore water. Will get a 16cell sodium bank as soon as have seen how my friends system works out.

They wouldn't tell us what the core was, but it's not iron, all they would say is it's made from some form of biomass, which has taken it over my head and will leave it at that. Hopefully this will be a game changer and we won't have to buy cells from china any more.

[T1 Terry]

Interesting, what brand? What electrolyte? Solid carbon anode? CATL are already on their second generation commercial production model after trying thousands of combinations to get the capacity, fast charging and discharging without degradation of capacity and cycle life.
Sodium ion have the advantage over LFP that they can be discharged to 0V and recharged without damage, over voltage charging only reduces cycle life and not capacity, and they can be stored at 0V for transport, eliminating the risk of sparks, short circuits and potential fires.
The biggest difference between cell types is the electrolyte. Those using water based have a much shorter cycle life than those with other salt formulations.

T1 Terry

[native pepper]

I either misunderstood what he said, or he got it wrong, his cells are made in china, Sparc technologies are the ones developing the green bios mass electrode in Aus.

https://sparctechnologies.com.au/sparc-batteries/
https://www.energymatters.com.au/renewa ... y-project/

This where he got his cells from and they are chinese

https://lifepo4.com.au/shop/cells-lifep ... -1v-220ah/

These are from the USA

https://ogsolarstore.com/en-au/products ... 4091694230

[T1 Terry]

I believe this is the commercial site for the manufacturer https://osnpower.com/products/sodium-io ... ar-storage my contact there goes by the name of Dinah, if you mention my name ... she will probably still talk to you No, I've directed quite a few people to her and they have been very happy with both the price and the attention to detail from the factory door to delivery.

I have 4 of these cells for testing, 2 have been built in a 4 cell 200Ah pack, the other cells are 2 x 100Ah Winston in parallel, 2 brand new, the other 2 over 6 yrs old.
The idea is to test them at different charge and discharged C rating to determine the relationship to LYP and these sodium ion cells as to whether they are equal to the performance of the LYP cells .......

Because I've been busy with other stuff, that project is on hold, along with testing the 15Ah cylindrical cells to determine if they could be potential EV replacement cells.

T1 Terry

[native pepper]

Thanks Terry, will contact them as when decide to text the sodium out. Hope they turn out to be good quality and better than lifepo4, which at the moment I doubt because of the long life I'm getting out of mine. Did notice yesterday my 3 lifepo4 test cells which have never been charged, one has dropped to 3.15v. The other 2 still sit at 13.2v and hope the one that's dropped is just going through a phase as our temperatures are getting below zero and in the workshop, it was minus 4 yesterday before the sun got on it. Had to light the heater so could paint the VTX exhausts, have beaten out all the dents and scratches to prepare them for chroming, but the cost of chroming is almost as much as a new set and that's over $1000. So decided to paint them black and a lady I met who rides a Harley and works in a auto parts store recommended I use VHT flame proof paint and give them a clear coat of the same brand. Her Harley pipes look amazing painted black and shine with the clear coat. Have decided to leave the muffler inserts chrome as they haven't been damaged and have a good shine on them. Been working on the bike because too bloody cold and wet to go riding, so pulled it apart to get it into real shape. Will post a photo or two when finished, the tank paint job and pin striping will have to wait, been quoted a big number to do that and touch up the rest of the paint. As it's a rare bike in Aus and they go for really good prices, the investment will be worth it.