@1hottmoma Yeah there's a head start for sodium, I agree. But it's not as simple as the redox reaction is the same as lithium. They behave entirely differently in terms of size, redox potential, mobility, coordination, solvation, all of which need to be considered in batteries. The polymeric separators for lithium are going to be almost entirely different due to these factors. Sodium is waaaaay bigger so the pores have to be bigger to accommodate, which means the counterions can more easily cross, neutralizing the charge gradient and killing the battery. The cathode and anode materials need to be compatabile with all of the above.
Now consider that this has all been developed for lithium (among many many other components ive left out), which really isn't that expensive to mine and produce. Is it worth doing it for sodium? Sure. But lithium is there and it works already. The market isn't going to be pumping into sodium ion battery development to have it now, will have to grow and find its place replacing lithium, just like lithium ion batteries did to their predecessors.
And THEN if we're even doing low density batteries for stationary batteries, flow cell and gravity batteries might end up being even better than all of them.
Thermal runway isn't my concern, it's external fire sources igniting the sodium (car crash, house fire, any fire). Look at videos of folks throwing sodium metal into lakes. Now imagine a battery the size of a building.
Lithium demand will continue to grow, but maybe not indefinitely. It will join the rest of the cyclic commodities.
