Natron energyA Santa Clara, California -based sodium ion battery startup, Closed operation Due to funding issues on 3 September. A year ago, the company made headlines for this Scheme of To make US $ 1.4 billion factory like the first time To manufacture up to 14 GW of sodium ion battery in northern Carolina. While experts say that the closure of Natron for the rest of the emerging industry in the United States should not be taken as a herbinger, they admit that West is behind China, which is taking advantage of it Effect Sodium-ion battery in lithium-ion batteries to move forward on the manufacture.
In the US, Natron launched in 2012, such as sodium-ion startups, rely on goodwill from funds, KM AbrahamCTO of a retired research professor and lithium-ion battery consulting firm at Northeastar University in Boston E-coume scienceThis can withstand challenges for companies when the deadline funds innovations.
“Companies are not able to progress quickly by investors,” they say.
Natron’s leading praise blue battery
Until some time ago, Natron was seen as a leader of the pack in the American sodium ion market. A part of the company’s appeal was its leading approach to low-cost electrodes, conductors on positive and negative terminals of the battery, which make contact with the non-metal part of the circuit. Company used Prusian blueTo make a pigment found in paint and dyes, for both cathode and anode Three battery systems, In addition to having low material costs, the chemical composition of Prussia Blue has large holes, allowing it to facilitate rapid ion transfer between the electrodes.
Natron was First in the world To commercialize sodium ion batteries using Prasia Blue, China’s battery can be a real achievement, Tyler EvansCo-founder and CEO Mind batariA broomfield, Colorado-based sodium-ion battery cell startup was launched in 2023.
“They were doing it in the west, and they were increasing a technology that was a relatively low energy density for a very specific market section,” Evans said about Natron’s products.
Maina is another American startup that focuses on bringing the sodium ion battery to the market.Nicholas Singstock/Maina
The market included grid storage, data center power backup and electric vehicle charging stations-large scale stable application where properties such as security and cost rank are more than energy density. Natron’s success in this space, including its plans for the North Carolina Factory, questioned whether sodium ion could emerge as a direct replacement for lithium-ion battery. United Airlines And Shehtir Natron was in the list of investors.
But Evans says that it is expensive to increase a low-energy density product when manufacturing manufacturing lines. “If you think of building a manufacturing facility, where you want to produce 10 gigawatt hours of the battery, if your energy density is very low, more manufacturing lines are required to produce a similar number of batteries,” says Evans.
“If you think of building a manufacturing facility, where you want to produce a gigawatt-hour of battery manufacturing capacity, if your energy density is very low, then more manufacturing lines are required to produce that capacity,” Evans, already, is already highly more capital and operational expenditure.
In 2023, Natron’s system brought it to the market. The company participated Collect To deploy Industry’s first multi-megavat class power platform for industrial applications. A year later, in 2024, Natron Open America’s first commercial scale manufacturing facility in Holland, Michigan to supply data centers with energy storage. United States Department of Energy RPA-E program be provided $ 19.8 million Natron as part of upgradation of $ 300 million facility for infection in sodium-ion battery manufacturing from lithium-ion battery manufacturing. That facility closed its doors at the same time as the California headquarters of Natron on 3 September.
A request for comment from Natron found an automatic message to contact the company as a result Primary shareholderSherwood Partners. Sherwood Partners did not respond to the remarks request.
Sodium ion vs lithium ion cost cost
Adrian Yao Stanford is the founder and team lead Steer initiativeA DOE-Finance Freeding Research Program. He is also the author of January 2025 paper To assess how sodium ions measure the lithium-ion battery in terms of battery technology and cost.
When he was influenced by Natron’s technology and product, he says that the company could be ahead of the data center market Ala, which was carved for itself. Yao says, “Hyperscalers right now, their primary concern is just connected and is building data centers.” “I think time on that cycle may be quick, and these unfortunate things do not always work.”
Natron Stanford joins spin-out Bedrek material As the second sodium ion company fold This year. Bedrock cited the market and innovation challenges for its April shutdown.
“Battery business is very difficult. There are many graves,” says Andrew ThomasChairman and Cofounder Acquired energyA columbus, Ohio-based startup marketing Two battery modules For industrial energy and EVs with sodium-ion cells that travel at a low speed, such as golf carts. Unlike Natron, acculon, which was launched in 2022, appoints more traditional levels-method oxides and other sodium chemistry.
Thomas says that this is the difference that makes it difficult to conclude about the American sodium-ion battery industry, as a whole in light of the closure of Natron. Comparison of various sodium-ion chemistry, such as comparison to oranges with apple, ingested with inguinal blue or layered metal oxide.
“I don’t think a failure is a representative of a country that is unable, but we are in a significant loss given the foundation installed in China,” Thomas says.
China is a major player in sodium-ion battery development, in which companies like CATL display their design in tech exposes.Yuan Zheng/VCG/AP
China’s dominance in battery manufacture
China has long dominated the battery industry, and sodium ion batteries are no exception. Today, China produces more than 75 percent of batteries sold globally, according to which International energy agencyOn the sodium ion front, developers like Cattle Have gone into the second generation battery with April launch K, a brand of NOXTRA, leads to EV applications.
Yao says that he wants to focus more on the creation of his manufacturing skills to compete with the US with China. Yao says, “In terms of our thinking and passion, my widespread criticism of the Western Hemisphere is with trying to innovate ourselves from the problem, it is that we focus too much on technology,” Yao says. “We have very little manufacturing experience … our produce rates are abi, and our workforce has not been trained.”
Founders like Evans and Thomas are optimistic about their possibilities, as grid storage, data center, and increasing demand for low-cost dynamics applications as they increase the need for applications that they say that sodium-ion is specificly equipped for support, security and cost metrics. When it comes to manufacturing, Maina is taking a page from China’s playbook by partnering with existing manufacturers to increase production.
Evans says that there is a hunger for such partnership in the US right now. “I think it is a commercialization sweet space that is specific for sodium.”
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