European Produced sustaInable SODium-ion battEries for stationary applications

The main mission for EPISODE is to develop a non-lithium battery technology based on abundant available low-cost materials, with attractive energy density and power metrics (close to that of LFP-based Li-ion batteries counterparts), that are durable (> 15-years and > 5,000 cycles), have a high round-trip efficiency (>95%), are non-toxic, non-critical, intrinsically safe and recyclable.

A further aspect of this mission is that the production processes for the anode, cathode, electrolyte solutions and binders as well as cell production will be sustainable, energy-efficient and demonstrated at industrial mass manufacturing scale.

Combining all of this leads to a non-lithium modular battery system with favourable CAPEX (< 150 €/kW storage capacity), OPEX (approx. 0.03 €/kWh/cycle) and carbon footprint (<100kgCO2eq/kWh), enabling energy storage applications, ranging from domestic installations (multiple units of 6.2 kWh/unit to be demonstrated in the project with projections towards large utility installations of multiple MWh.

As a consequence, this will establish a European-based, globally competitive battery supply- and value chain that supports economic prosperity and the net-zero transition.

The integrated material-manufacturing and sustainability assessment approach in EPISODE will transform the existing (Li) battery manufacturing process into a sustainable one to meet the future needs of the sustainable and resilient EU battery industry.

In EPISODE, the project objectives will be achieved by a strong alliance among physics, chemistry and materials science researchers from both academia and industry (UMI, ARK, UPC, ISE), academic battery cell producers (CID, WMG) and industrial module manufacturers (FAAM), end-users (EGP, EnelX, EnBW, Senec) as well as expertise in environmental assessments (UAH, KIT) and experts in project management and communication and dissemination activities (UNR).