Batteries From Trees

Batteries made from trees as tech pioneers link up

Carbon stored in trees can be used as an anode material for batteries instead of graphite, which China controls the supply of

Updated 5 June 2024, 06:22

A plan to use material from trees to make the greenest batteries in the world, and cut Western reliance on Chinese supply chains, has just got a little closer thanks to a new Nordic partnership.

Stora Enso, one of the largest private forest owners globally, has teamed up with Swedish developer Altris to use material from its abundant supply of trees as a battery material.

Altris makes sodium-ion batteries – one of the many challengers to the market-leading lithium-ion batteries, found in phones, electric vehicles and energy storage systems worldwide.

Swedish-Finnish pulp producer Stora Enso and Altris aim to develop and commercialise what they describe as the “world's most sustainable battery.”

They will do this by advancing Stora Enso’s concept of using lignin – a plant-derived polymer found in the cell walls of dry-land plants – as the anode material for batteries.

“Bio-based materials are key to improving the sustainability of battery cells,” said Juuso Konttinen, head of biomaterials growth at Stora Enso. Nordic birch trees would be among those used to supply the ligninPhoto: Mikko Nikkinen, Stora Enso The company’s Lignode material has the potential to become the “most sustainable anode material in the world,” he claimed.

Lignin, a polymer, makes up 20-30% of trees, making it abundantly available. Lignin also contains carbon, which can be used as a battery anode. Currently, most battery anodes are made from graphite, and China controls the graphite anode supply chain “from end-to- end,” according to a recent International Energy Agency report. Lignin being a by-product from pulp manufacturing ensures a “stable and consistent raw material supply” for anode material manufacturing, said Stora Enso.

With the vast majority of battery materials sourced outside Europe, it said the new partnership aims to “support the establishment of a European battery value chain. “Stora Enso’s European-based operations offer a localised solution that minimises environmental impact and promotes energy independence.”

The emphasis on developing a sustainable European supply chain comes amid concern about the West’s dependency on China for lithium-ion batteries. China dominates the supply chain for lithium-ion batteries at a time when the world needs to massively ramp up its energy storage capacity to help save excess power generated from the flood of new wind and solar farms being brought online.

Europe and the US are now making concerted efforts to boost their own supply chains, while many Western companies are focusing on developing new energy storage solutions that don’t rely on lithium at all.