This Molten Salt Battery Will Change The World
At four times the energy density and only a fraction of the cost of lithium-ion
As the world turns its back on planet-wrecking fossil fuels, it starts to revolve more around batteries. EVs, solar power, wind power, tidal power, wave power, and even local energy grids will rely on them to function. But our current battery technology is bulky, expensive, and harmful to the environment, and as such, we desperately need a battery revolution. Luckily, a recent paper detailed a battery that solves pretty much all these issues. But will it be enough?
This battery is a sodium-sulphur molten salt battery. It uses liquid molten salt as its electrolyte and has existed for a long time now (read more about molten salt batteries here). These batteries tend to be cheaper, safer, and more environmentally friendly as they use a smaller amount of widely available materials (in that they don’t require ecosystem-damaging mining practises to source them like lithium-ion does), are non-toxic, and are non-flammable.
Previous molten salt batteries use aluminium-sulphur chemistries, and they tend to have a low energy density and require high temperatures to keep the salt molten, making them relatively useless. But this new one instead uses a unique sodium-sulphur chemistry and a salt…
