By K.T. Jagannathan

This little-known company from Chennai became a national talking point when it managed to attract $4.1 billion investment from American fund TFCC International in December 2021. It returned to focus yet again recently when it inked a pact with Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) for the complete management of greenhouse gas emissions, converting them into value-added products and fuel for the BSP with no residue left behind. Subsequently, it went on to sign up similar agreements with some other SAIL (Steel Authority of India Ltd) units.

Now, the Chennai-based Ram Charan Co is back in the news, just becoming the first Indian company to be granted a patent in the solid-state battery space using sodium as a key material. The significance of this is not lost when one considers it against the backdrop of the increasing demand for safer alternatives to Li-ion Batteries. This demand for an alternative has gained considerable momentum in the wake of concerted Go Green global initiatives.

The proof of concept (PoC) on solid state sodium silicate batteries has been developed and tested by Ram Charan Co in its R&D wing since 2021. The in-house R&D-developed, earth abundant and completely recyclable solid state sodium battery is the first of its kind employing naturally abundant sodium silicate as CAM and Na-enriched phyllosilicates (Ram Charan’s specialty compound) as solid electrolyte.

The demonstration of Na batteries in solid state by the Indian industry at PoC level is a breakthrough. This is expected to be scaled up and tested in real-time applications by the end of 2024. Considering the patent was filed in June 2023, after 19 months of research and development and considering it is the first sodium solid state battery from India, it puts the country in the world map of battery technology development far ahead of all its competitors at least by a decade and is on the path to commercialisation. “This can create significant value additions in the EV (electric vehicle), consumer electronics, low power electronics, stationary storage and space applications,” the company said.

“On account of the abundant availability of sodium resources and environment-friendly nature, solid-state batteries based on sodium have emerged as an attractive alternative in the field of electrochemical energy storage devices,” says M.V. Sangaranarayanan, professor, Department of Chemistry, IIT Madras. The key strategy in the development of all solid-state sodium batteries (SSSBs), according to him, is the appropriate choice of electrolytes.

“While the hitherto-envisaged electrolytes were expensive and cumbersome to synthesise in large scale, Ram Charan – Entity 1 has now come up with an indigenously prepared sodium silicate electrolyte with optimum conductivity and stability for enhancing the performance of SSSBs. This painstaking research work of several years emphasises that the sodium-silicate based electrolytes in SSSBs can indeed be made commercially in an affordable manner and supports the ‘Make in India for all’ mission of Government of India,” he says.

This invention, according to Ram Charan, is also anticipated to eliminate the dependency of the country for mineral resources and supply chain on other developed and developing countries, thereby making it self-reliant in the field. “Most importantly, the product is fully recyclable with no toxic residue, making this perhaps the most significant breakthrough when end-product responsibility comes into play.