One of the biggest challenges for the contract processing world was how the future would be powered, and a breakthrough in battery technology may change the future as we know it.
At present, the push towards a greener energy future free of fossil fuels has relied on lithium-ion power, with the inherent issues with mining, transportation and a demand that outstrips supply, as well as a reliance on toxic and flammable materials.
However, according to a study from the Tokyo University of Science, the future could be made of salt.
The concept of sodium-ion batteries is not new, and it has been an exciting field of battery technology for many years due to relying on far cheaper materials, not having the risks associated with overheating or freezing, and being more stable and less prone to power fluctuations.
The issue has been energy density, which in most heavy-duty use cases such as energy storage and electric vehicles is sufficient to make sodium-ion batteries not commercially viable even if the technology functions.
The team at Rikadai has gotten around this issue through the use of a nanostructured hard carbon electrode, which when optimised and incorporated into a sodium ion battery design leads to performance levels 1.6 times the energy density of early sodium-ion batteries.
More importantly, this breakthrough allows sodium-ion batteries to provide an energy density similar to current commercial lithium-ion batteries, making them far more useful and viable for the types of battery-powered products already on the market.
With a high level of commercial interest and a belief that once the code was cracked that sodium-ion was the future of battery technology, this breakthrough could, if its findings can be translated to a commercial product, be an epochal moment in battery history.
It could be the step that enables sodium-ion batteries to enter mass production, end up in the hands of consumers and boost the green capabilities of an electrified future.