“It’s an attention-grabbing cell idea,” says Jürgen Janek, a professor on the Institute of Bodily Chemistry on the College of Giessen in Germany, who was not concerned within the analysis. There’s been earlier analysis on sodium-air batteries prior to now, Janek says, however utilizing this form of chemistry in a gasoline cell as an alternative is new.
“One of many crucial points with the sort of cell idea is the protection concern,” Janek says. Sodium metallic reacts very strongly with water. (You will have seen movies the place blocks of sodium metallic get thrown right into a lake, to dramatic impact). Requested about this concern, Chiang says the design of the cell ensures that water produced throughout reactions is constantly eliminated, so there’s not sufficient round to gasoline dangerous reactions. The strong electrolyte, a ceramic materials, additionally helps stop reactions between water and sodium, Chiang provides.
One other query is what occurs to one of many cell’s merchandise, sodium hydroxide. Generally often called lye, it is an industrial chemical, utilized in merchandise like liquid drain-cleaning answer. One of many researchers’ recommendations is to dilute the product and launch it into the environment or ocean, the place it might react with carbon dioxide, capturing it in a secure kind and stopping it from contributing to international warming. There are teams pursuing discipline trials utilizing this actual chemical for ocean-based carbon elimination, although some have been met with controversy. The researchers additionally laid out the potential for a closed system, the place the chemical may very well be collected and bought as a by-product.
There are financial elements working in favor of sodium-based methods, although it might take some work to construct up the mandatory provide chains. In the present day, sodium metallic isn’t produced at very excessive volumes. Nonetheless, it may be constituted of sodium chloride (desk salt), which is extremely low-cost. And it was produced extra abundantly prior to now, because it was used within the course of of constructing leaded gasoline. So there’s a precedent for a bigger provide chain, and it’s potential that scaling up manufacturing of sodium metallic would make it low-cost sufficient to make use of in gasoline cell methods, Chiang says.
Chiang has cofounded an organization known as Propel Aero to commercialize the analysis. The undertaking obtained funding from ARPA-E’s Propel-1K program, which goals to develop new types of high-power vitality storage for plane, trains, and ships.
The subsequent step is to proceed analysis to enhance the cells’ efficiency and vitality density, and to start out designing small-scale methods. One potential early utility is drones. “We’d prefer to make one thing fly inside the subsequent yr,” Chiang says.
“If individuals don’t discover it loopy, I’ll be reasonably dissatisfied,” Chiang says. “As a result of if an thought doesn’t sound loopy originally, it most likely isn’t as revolutionary as you suppose. Thankfully, most individuals suppose I’m loopy on this one.”
