Govt scientific advisor wants lithium alternatives explored amid global race

livemint.com:

NEW DELHI : India should explore alternatives to lithium-ion batteries for scaling up electric mobility, the government’s principal scientific advisor Ajay Kumar Sood said, amid a global scramble for critical minerals. Sood, who also chairs the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council specifically mentioned sodium-ion and aluminium air batteries as alternatives to lithium. Mining lithium is yet to take off in India although reserves found in Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan make India among the top 10 holders of the mineral.

Sood said that although efforts are underway in India for making lithium-ion batteries, these are only produced in a small scale, meriting a search for alternatives. “The question is, can we do sodium-ion technology on a commercial scale? That is the goal because lithium is less abundant. It’s not something India will have for a long time.

Instead of lithium-ion battery for electric mobility, can we go for sodium-ion battery and aluminium air battery which entails a (battery) swapping kind of mechanism. Can we adopt these for our electric vehicles?" said Sood. Aluminium air batteries are not recharged with external power, but the aluminium plates used as anode are replaced once fully used—spelling further logistical challenges.

Sood said some of the sodium-ion battery technologies developed indigenously by private firms and CSIR can be used for commercial-scale production. “Everyone is trying to improve. You don’t see sodium-ion batteries in vehicles now.

But they will come because they will be cheaper as sodium is available in plenty. This is what we should do. This is what India has to think," said Sood.