natron energya sodium-ion battery startup based in Santa Clara, California, the operation ceased on September 3 due to funding issues. Just a year ago, the company made headlines for its plans build a one-of-a-kind factory worth $1.4 billion in North Carolina to manufacture up to 14 gigawatt-hours of sodium-ion batteries. While experts say Natron’s closure should not be taken as a harbinger for the rest of the emerging industry in the United States, they acknowledge that the West is behind China, which is taking advantage of its domain in lithium-ion batteries to advance the manufacturing of sodium-ion batteries.
In the US, sodium ion startups like Natron, which launched in 2012, tend to rely on the goodwill of financiers, he says KM Abrahamretired research professor at Northeastern University in Boston and chief technology officer of a lithium-ion battery consulting company E-KEM Sciences. This can pose challenges for companies when funding timelines outpace innovations.
“Companies are not able to move fast enough to withstand the pressure exerted by investors,” he says.
Natron’s pioneering Prussian blue batteries
Until recently, Natron was considered a leader in the US sodium ion market. Part of the company’s appeal was its pioneering focus on low-cost electrodes, the conductors of the positive and negative terminals of the battery, which contact the non-metallic part of the circuit. The company used Prussian bluea pigment found in paints and dyes, to make both the cathode and anode of your three battery systems. In addition to having a low material cost, the chemical structure of Prussian blue has large pores, which helps facilitate faster ion transfer between the electrodes.
Natron was the first in the world commercialize a sodium-ion battery using Prussian blue, a true feat considering China’s battery manufacturing power, says tyler evansco-founder and CEO of mana batterya Broomfield, Colorado-based sodium-ion battery cell startup that launched in 2023.
“They were doing it in the West and they were scaling up a technology that had a relatively low power density for a very specific market segment,” Evans says of Natron’s products.
Mana is another American startup that focuses on bringing sodium-ion batteries to the market.Nicholas Singstock/Mana
That market included grid storage, data center power backups and electric vehicle charging stations – large-scale stationary applications where attributes such as security and cost are higher than power density. Natron’s success in this space, including its plans for the North Carolina factory, raised questions about whether sodium-ion batteries could emerge as a direct replacement for lithium-ion batteries. united airlines and Chevron were on Natron’s investor list.
But Evans says scaling up a low-energy-density product while building manufacturing lines is expensive. “If you think about building a manufacturing facility “When you want to produce a gigawatt-hour of battery manufacturing capacity, if the energy density per battery cell is very low, producing that capacity requires more manufacturing lines,” Evans says, which means significantly more operating and capital expenditures in an already capital-intensive company.
In 2023, Natron systems hit the market. The company partnered with incorporate to deploy the industry’s first multi-megawatt-class power platform for industrial applications. A year later, in 2024, Natron open The first U.S. commercial-scale manufacturing facility in Holland, Michigan, to supply energy storage to data centers. The US Department of Energy ARPA-E program provided 19.8 million dollars to Natron as part of a $300 million facility upgrade to transition from lithium-ion battery manufacturing to sodium-ion battery manufacturing. That facility closed its doors at the same time as Natron’s California headquarters on September 3.
A request for comment from Natron resulted in an automated message to contact the company representative. main shareholderSherwood Partners. Sherwood Partners did not respond to a request for comment.
Sodium Ion vs Lithium Ion Battery Costs
Adrian Yao He is the founder and leader of the Stanford team DIRECTION Initiativea research program funded by the DOE. He is also the author of a January 2025 book. paper evaluate how sodium-ion batteries compare to lithium-ion batteries in terms of technology and cost.
While he was impressed with Natron’s technology and product, he says the company may have been ahead of the curve in the data center market niche it had created for itself. “Right now, hyperscalers’ main concern is just connecting and building data centers,” Yao says. “I think the timing of that cycle may be early and it’s unfortunate that things don’t always go well.”
Natron joins Stanford spinout Bedrock Materials as the second largest sodium ion company in fold this year. Bedrock cited market and innovation challenges for its April closing.
“The battery business is very difficult. There are many obstacles,” he says Andres Tomaspresident and co-founder of Acculon Energya marketing startup based in Columbus, Ohio. two battery modules with sodium ion cells for industrial power and electric vehicles that travel at low speeds, such as golf carts. Unlike Natron, Acculon, which launched in 2022, uses more traditional layered metal oxides and other sodium chemistries.
Thomas says it’s this distinction that makes it difficult to draw conclusions about the US sodium-ion battery industry as a whole in light of Natron’s closure. Comparing different sodium ion chemistries, such as Prussian blue or layered metal oxides, is like comparing apples to oranges.
“I don’t think failure is representative of a country being incapable, but we are at a significant disadvantage given the installed base in China,” Thomas says.
China is the dominant player in sodium-ion battery development, with companies like CATL showing off their designs at technology expos.Yuan Zheng/VCG/AP
China’s dominance in battery manufacturing
China has long dominated the battery industry and sodium ion batteries are no exception. Today, China produces more than 75 percent of the batteries sold globally, according to the International Energy Agency. On the sodium ion front, developers like CATL have moved on to second generation batteries, with the month of April launch from Naxtra, a brand aimed at electric vehicle applications.
Yao says he would like to see the United States focus more attention on developing its manufacturing capacity to compete with China. “My broader criticism of the Western Hemisphere in terms of our thinking and obsession with trying to innovate to solve the problem is that we focus too much on technology,” Yao says. “We have very little manufacturing experience… Our throughput rates are abysmal and our workforce is untrained.”
Founders like Evans and Thomas are optimistic about their prospects, as growing demand for low-cost network storage, data centers and mobility applications drives the need for applications that they say sodium-ion batteries are uniquely equipped to support in terms of temperature range, safety and cost metrics. When it comes to manufacturing, Mana is following China’s lead by partnering with existing manufacturers to increase production.
Evans says there is an appetite for this type of partnership in the United States right now. “I think it’s a sodium-specific marketing sweet spot.”
From the articles on your site
Related articles on the Web
#Natron #shutdown #sodium #ion
