Haldor Topsøe A/S, a global market leader in catalysis and related process technologies, has recently acquired 18% of the shares in the battery technology company Faradion Limited based in Sheffield Yorkshire, UK. As part of the investment, Haldor Topsøe will collaborate with Faradion to further co-develop and scale up key parts of the company’s sodium-ion technology. Furthermore, the investment provides Haldor Topsøe the right to manufacture and sell cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries under license from Faradion.
Faradion was founded in 2010 with the objective to develop a low-cost sodium-ion battery technology capable of reducing the cost of energy storage in a range of applications related to renewable energy, stationary storage and transportation. Over the last few years, interest in sodium-ion batteries has increased. However, relatively little research has been conducted in this area and, as a result, next generation materials have not yet been brought to market.
Faradion’s technology is promising because it enables the replacement of lithium in lithium-ion batteries with the more commonly available, sustainable and much less expensive metal sodium without impacting adversely on any of the key performance characteristics of current large scale batteries. From a cost point of view this makes it highly interesting in a wide range of industrial applications.
Read more by following these links:
http://www.topsoe.com/Media/News/2014/060214.aspx
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2014/02/20140212-faradion.html
http://www.chemicals-technology.com/news/newsdanish-catalysis-company-acquires-stake-in-faradion-4174493
