Swedish company wants to produce batteries from wood

Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt entered into a development partnership with Finnish forestry company Stora Enso last week. anode (positive pole) is made of lignin-based hard carbon. This polymer, present up to 30% of the wood composition, will be supplied entirely by the pulp and paper producer in Helsinki.

Founded in 2015 by two former Tesla executives, Northfolk brought the concept of a concert factory in the USA, producing batteries for electric cars, to Scandinavia. With the prospects of reducing CO emissions_two In Europe, it didn’t take long for the company to receive financing from several automakers. – like Volkswagen, BMW and Volvo – to improve your projects.

How will the new wooden anode battery work?

Northvolt wants to continue to expand its share of the European battery market and seeks to use unique and sustainable materials such as fully recycled nickel, manganese and cobalt for this purpose. With the development of lignin-based batteries supplied by Stora Enso, the Stockholm venture enters a new phase of production. Reduces carbon footprint and cost with 100% European raw materials.

The idea is to produce a battery that can compete on a par with conventional graphite or promising silicon anodes. In this sense, lignin becomes a key element. Polymer, whose biological function is to protect plant tissue against the effects of microorganisms and oxidation, is a by-product in the manufacture of material cellulose fiber and millions of tons are produced, under the name of lignodeBy Stora Enso.

Acting as a powerful natural binding agent, lignin is one of the largest renewable sources of carbon on the planet, as it is present in the cell walls of almost all land plants.