Building Sustainable Sodium-Ion Batteries from Wood Industry By-Products

Overview

In response to the urgent demand for sustainable and resource-efficient energy storage technologies, Fraunhofer researchers and their project partners have pioneered a sodium-ion battery system using lignin—a by-product of the wood and pulp industry. This innovative approach leverages locally available, environmentally friendly materials to create cost-effective, safe batteries that reduce reliance on critical raw materials like lithium, cobalt, and nickel.

Project Background: ThüNaBsE Initiative

The ThüNaBsE (Thuringia Sodium-Ion Battery for Scalable Energy Storage) project, a collaboration involving the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS and Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, aims to develop a full sodium-ion battery cell using lignin-derived materials. The initiative not only advances sustainable battery technology but also supports junior researchers in energy and battery research fields within Thuringia, Germany.

Lignin as a Key Raw Material

Lignin, a natural biopolymer providing wood with structural stability, is typically burned for energy in paper mills. The project repurposes this by-product by thermally converting lignin under inert conditions into "hard carbon," which then serves as the negative electrode material. This hard carbon offers excellent electrochemical performance, stability over charge cycles, and affordable production costs, making it ideal for sodium-ion storage.

Positive Electrode: Prussian Blue Analogs

For the positive electrode, the team utilizes Prussian Blue analogs—non-toxic iron compounds historically used as pigments. These materials are prized for their abundance, environmental compatibility, and effective sodium-ion storage capabilities.

Performance and Testing

Initial laboratory tests of the small demonstrator cells have shown promising stability, maintaining consistent performance over 100 charge-discharge cycles with no significant degradation. The project’s goal is to achieve 200 cycles for a 1-Ah full cell by its conclusion. Testing is conducted across Fraunhofer IKTS’s battery centers and Friedrich-Schiller-University’s facilities, supplemented by advanced multi-physical simulations.

Potential Applications and Future Prospects

Once fully developed, lignin-based sodium-ion batteries could suit stationary energy storage and low-power mobile applications such as microcars (limited to 45 km/h) and warehouse logistics vehicles like forklifts. The project partners plan to scale up the technology further, advancing it through higher technology readiness levels with broader consortium support.

Environmental and Economic Significance

By avoiding scarce critical metals and minimizing harmful components such as fluorine, the ThüNaBsE project aligns with sustainability goals and the energy transition. Utilizing wood industry by-products adds a circular economy dimension, promoting recycling and reducing waste within the battery manufacturing value chain.

Source

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (2025). Building sustainable sodium-ion batteries from wood industry by-products. Retrieved November 5, 2025, from https://techxplore.com/news/2025-11-sustainable-sodium-ion-batteries-wood.html

This breakthrough highlights promising pathways toward greener, safer, and more affordable energy storage solutions rooted in sustainable materials and regional resource utilization. Stay tuned for further advancements in lignin-based battery technologies as they approach commercial viability.

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