Volkswagen’s EV Battery Maker Is Developing A Wood-Based Battery

As companies continue to forge a sustainable future, many have come up with innovative ways of creating methods that will futureproof their processes. Volkswagen’s electric vehicle battery creator, Northvolt, is using Mother Nature as more than inspiration as it looks to develop batteries made from wood. 

The Swedish battery company has devised a new method of extracting carbon from locally-sourced wood to use as the makeup of its batteries. A press release from the company states that it has teamed up with Finnish forestry enterprise Stora Enso to harness an anode made from lignin-based hard carbon from renewable wood. Anodes are crucial parts of a battery. 

Lignin is a polymer found in the cells of plants. Trees are approximately made up of 20% to 30% lignin, according to Stora Enso, making them ripe for the picking. Lignin is also apparently the largest renewable source of energy, according to Northvolt. 

Stora Enso will work on harvesting the lignin anodes, called ‘Lignode’, from trees before sending them to Northvolt to turn into batteries. The ultimate goal of the project is to create a battery anode that relies solely on raw and sustainable materials from Europe. 

Northvolt was started by two ex-employees from Tesla who saw the supersonic rise in electric vehicles and wanted to provide a battery that could reduce carbon emissions and cost at the same time. EV batteries are usually made up of nickel and cobalt, which have a high carbon footprint when mining. It causes quite a conundrum when electric cars are meant to be saving on emissions, yet to create one incurs a heavy price on the environment. 

Since its inception, it has been backed by other car manufacturers such as Volkswagen, BMW, and Volvo, which have all invested in the expansion of the company in Sweden to further its battery production for future use in their cars. 

Northvolt is also looking into creating batteries made from 100% recycled manganese, nickel, and cobalt. 

[via Electrek and CNBC, Photo 226600657 © Marko Hannula | Dreamstime.com]