Safety
Durathon Battery’s safety design features and protective controls in the battery management system guard against failure modes common to industrial batteries due to misuse, damage or other external factors. 
Long Service Life
Durathon Batteries are designed for continued daily cycle performance over extended periods of time, enabling a high-energy throughput over the life of the battery. Durathon technology offers extended cycle life at deep depth-of-discharge, and features a virtually unlimited shelf-life since they do not self-discharge.
Temperature Independent
Durathon technology is suitable to operate in extreme ambient temperatures without adversely affecting energy delivery, life cycle and safety. Capable of operating at temperatures ranging from -40°C to 65°C, Durathon Batteries do not require the use of air conditioning or heating.
Minimal Maintenance
Durathon Batteries require minimal on-site maintenance. Each module has a battery management system that monitors the battery condition and allows for remote monitoring and diagnostics enabling significant reduction in battery operating costs.
Environmentally Responsible
Durathon Batteries, a product of Ecomagination, are fabricated from abundantly available raw materials and can be recycled through the GE-authorized recycling partners at the end of the battery’s service life, reducing industrial waste.
High Reliability
Durathon systems are engineered to maintain power. Individual battery modules have a battery management system designed to optimize battery life and performance, protect against destructive conditions, and enable remote monitoring and diagnostics.
Smaller Footprint
With best-in-class energy density, Durathon Batteries offer more energy in half the space and one-third the weight of an equivalent wet-cell, lead-acid battery.
Scalable
A modular design allows for customization – acting as building blocks, Durathon Batteries can be aggregated into multiples of hundred-kilowatt-hour-sized or megawatt-hour-sized energy storage units that integrate into energy management control systems.
Seamless Integration
Designed to communicate with standard energy management systems, each Durathon Battery module easily integrates into any pre-existing, system-wide control software.

Battery Power, Reimagined

In an ever-changing world, innovation is key. At GE, we’re committed to pioneering technological advances that make the world a better place. Durathon Battery technology is based on an advanced industrial battery design engineered to meet the growing need for safer, reliable and high performance energy storage solutions for a variety of stationary and motive applications.

Durathon Battery technology is transforming the way we look at alternate power and energy solutions. Originating from a pursuit of a better power source for hybrid locomotives, GE Global Research evaluated various battery technologies, identifying sodium nickel chloride batteries as the most versatile and effective solution.

In 2007, GE acquired Beta R&D, a UK-based company that originally pioneered the development of sodium metal halide batteries in the 1980s and had already demonstrated the technology’s reliability and durability through years of previous research.

The wait is now over. See the Performance Profile of Durathon Batteries.

Durathon Battery technology is based on the simple chemistry of sodium and nickel. During charging, chloride ions are released from sodium chloride and combined with nickel to form nickel chloride. These sodium ions then migrate from the cathode reservoir through a beta alumina separator into the anode reservoir. During discharge, the reverse chemical reaction occurs and sodium ions migrate from the anode reservoir through the beta alumina separator into the cathode reservoir. There is no self-discharge because sodium ions can move easily across the beta alumina, while electrons cannot.

Each cell is hermetically sealed within its own metal case, and is strung together with other cells in a thermally insulated battery module, which ensures that the battery’s external surfaces remain within 10°C to 15°C of the surrounding ambient temperature. All Durathon Batteries are managed by the Durathon Battery Management System, which controls and protects the battery and relays information for monitoring the battery’s condition.

Providing efficiencies through superior cycle performance, high energy density and increased reliability, the GE Durathon Battery is the basis of a consistent and reliable energy storage system for a variety of stationary and motive applications. Providing value and ingenuity to fields such as Telecommunications, Power Generation, Grid Operation and Energy Management, Durathon Battery’s sodium nickel technology will change the way the world sees battery energy storage.

Innovative Manufacturing

GE invested $100 million into a world-class Durathon Battery manufacturing facility in Schenectady, New York. Officially opened in July 2012, production commenced in September 2011 using advanced powder processing, ceramics and welding technologies.

With ongoing battery research and continuous improvement in its Durathon Battery technology and backed by quality-driven processes such as GE’s Six Sigma program, GE continues its long-term commitment to innovation, development and large-scale production.

To see more of our advanced manufacturing facility, click here.