I love to imagine a battery made from salt water. As we meet our need for fresh water, there is excess brine. If that brine could be used as a battery that would be awesome.

Here the Electric Viking is saying CATL has found an economical way to do it, that it could allow electric cars to really compete with combustion vehicles.

The gist of the argument here is that the batteries will be both: cheaper than lithium-ion batteries, and higher energy-dense than lithium-ion batteries. Usually, because sodium is like a heavier brother to lithium, you wouldn’t expect this.

These CATL batteries have a hybrid sodium-lithium composition. Lithium can be found as a waste product of oil drilling, and it can be recycled.

Natron, a small American research company, has a new battery design made from sodium, iron oxide, and magnesium oxide. Those two other materials are waste from industrial processes. There is the problem of energy density. And, Natron batteries may be more suited to energy storage, than for cars.

One of the drawbacks of sodium-ion batteries is dendrite formation. But, these two battery designs are said to have addressed this problem…. and I am awaiting the production of solid-state sodium batteries.