3 ms·

How easy is it to obtain sodium from common salt?

• the_sleaze9 4y ago
  Maybe we could even convert existing mcdonalds locations into battery-swap and electric vehicle charging stations
• isoprophlex 4y ago
  Take the salt, heat it, run current through it. Sodium vapor comes out. Not exactly "easy", but self-contained. From an environmental point of view sodium is absolutely brilliant compared to lithium. Everyone with access to sea water can produce almost 400 g of sodium from 1kg of common table salt. No lithium mining needed. More info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downs_cell https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downs_cell
• nagisa 4y ago
  NaCl is not an applicable source material for these batteries. Na₂CO₃ is going to be the it, for better or for worse.
  • scythe 4y ago
    Mostly because mining trona (actually Na3H(CO3)2*2H2O) is cheaper than the Solvay process. It's not a matter of possibility, it's just the path of least resistance.