One of the largest urban mobility companies has released an electric scooter with several versions that are powered by a sodium-ion battery for the first time.
There are salt flats and salt mines, which are potentially cheaper than desalination (they’re literally just digging up the ground and putting it into a truck), but desalination also has a huge excess of salt that ends up being dumped into the ocean; more sodium demand would be good for the environment.
Iirc, the problem with desalination is that it doesn’t actually produce salt, just a very salty water slurry. So for them to produce usable salt they’d have to dry it out or something. Not that that sounds like it would be particularly difficult, but it’s an extra step.
There are salt flats and salt mines, which are potentially cheaper than desalination (they’re literally just digging up the ground and putting it into a truck), but desalination also has a huge excess of salt that ends up being dumped into the ocean; more sodium demand would be good for the environment.
Iirc, the problem with desalination is that it doesn’t actually produce salt, just a very salty water slurry. So for them to produce usable salt they’d have to dry it out or something. Not that that sounds like it would be particularly difficult, but it’s an extra step.