Researchers at GE Global Research have tested the GE's new Durathon battery by powering an electric bus that also incorporates a lithium battery and a hydrogen fuel cell.
The new development is aimed at accelerating the adoption of both fuel cell and electrification of bus fleets, delivery trucks as well as other heavy-duty vehicle fleets offering clean vehicle technologies.
GE Global Research Electric Propulsion Systems Lab systems engineer Tim Richter said since several years, the adoption of fuel cells, which have been talked about as a clean transportation alternative, have been delayed due to their high cost.
"With GE's battery technology and dynamic dual battery management system, we're starting to push that roadblock aside."
The development is part of a $13m research project, which also includes the US Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and Northeast Advanced Vehicle Consortium, and is funded under the National Fuel Cell Bus Program.
The new energy management architecture being developed by GE researchers is claimed to allow a bus to operate at full performance with a smaller fuel cell, while reducing costs by up to 50%.
GE researchers believe that the kind of energy management architecture they're building will allow for a bus to operate at full performance with a significantly smaller fuel cell than previously possible
"GE's Multi-Energy High Voltage Energy Management Technology releases vehicle designers from the traditional constraints of single battery configurations," Richter said.
"GE's Energy Management Technology combined with two or more batteries or energy devices allows GE to enable various power-to-energy configurations that match the vehicle needs."
The new batteries are manufactured at the firm's start-up Energy Storage business in Schenectady, New York, which began operations in July 2012.
