Meet the female-founder storing energy through sodium-ion batteries
“No battery company – that I can find - has been founded by a woman… until now,” Subathra Rajendran said.
In a field predominately led by men, Subathra Rajendran, the founder of IonTech is proving that women, too, can lead in the battery space.
“Until now, only 10 percent of this industry is women. So, I want to lead by example. I want to show the world that a woman can start a battery-energy company,” she said.
Rajendran is an energy specialist by profession. She has been a chemical engineer for the past 20 years working with major corporations in the oil and gas industry. She worked upstream and downstream in the oil cycle as a process engineer and knows the business like the back of her hand.
Her successful corporate career has taken her across the Globe, working in India, Dubai, Malaysia, Netherlands, Milan, and even the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Why would a woman who achieved such success in the oil and gas industry want to shift toward sustainable alternatives?
Rajendran said her experience in Congo really altered her perspective.
“Congo brought out the entrepreneur inside me. I went to a cobalt and lithium mine as a part of my work and physically saw the environmental damage and danger to humanity. There is a lot of child labor involved in the mining industry overseas. Plus, the people of all ages working in the mines have a whole host of health issues,” she said.
From that point forward, Rajendran committed herself to seeking a sustainable, long-term solution that would supply large amounts of energy, remove the need to mine for lithium, and alleviate what she views as a humanitarian crisis.
Rajendran resigned from her well-established, well-paid, 20-year career to pursue full-time research.
“That’s how I ended up here,” she smiled, noting that her home base is in India.
She decided to return to school for continued education, securing a master’s degree in sustainability from the University of Dayton, Ohio. Then, she applied for and was selected to participate in several start-up boot camps and accelerators, including most recently the Spark Cleantech Accelerator at the University of Tennessee (UT) Research Park.
Rajendran said the United States “friendly” and supportive innovation ecosystem keeps her here. Furthermore, she believes her placement in the US is strategic for her research into sodium-ion batteries.
“Lithium is the primary material being used for batteries right now, but it has to be sourced from overseas,” she said. “The US needs another material to support the electrification process and transition toward renewables.
In addition to Lithium being sourced from overseas, Rajendran pointed to several other downsides of the element – including its history of lighting on fire, and high cost. As an alternative, she revealed that the US has the largest reserve of sodium in the world. It’s also the sixth most abundant element on earth.
“Right now, Lithium is the only technology going to your electric vehicles, mobile phones, and laptops,” she said. “But there are some applications where sodium could be a right fit to reduce the cost and alleviate some supply chain issues.”
Furthermore, the application for her sodium-ion batteries could have more possibilities than the globally accepted lithium alternatives. Rajendran’s research demonstrates that her sodium batteries work at room temperature, offer two times higher durability, and can be made locally (the biggest selling point).
Rajendran is energized about the opportunity to bring this revolutionary technology to market and is particularly motivated by her entrepreneurial journey.
“Congo helped me to find my purpose and gave me motivation to do something good for society,” she said. “But being an entrepreneur is a lot different than working for a corporation. In the corporate world, you have established structure, teams, leaders, and collective goals. Now, it’s just me.”
Another motivator for her success is the stereotypes in the industry. Rajendran has noticed, just within the past few years, how male-dominated the battery space is. 90 percent of the executives in the industry are men.
“I believe I am in this position to be a promoter of more than a million women in STEM. I plan to lead by example and encourage more female innovators to jump into the energy industry,” Rajendran said.
A handful of women have contributed to the innovations of battery technologies over the years; however, Rajendran brought up a fascinating point… if successful, she would be the first female founder of a battery company in the United States.
“No battery company – that I can find – has been founded by a woman… until now,” she concluded.
Currently, Rajendran has been commuting to the Spark program each week from Ohio. However, she is considering relocating to Knoxville if strategic partnerships become available.
Connect with Subathra Rajendran.
Visit the IonTech Energy Solutions website.
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