Daimler Trucks defends SCR technology, says urea availability won’t be an issue

Chris Patterson, president and CEO of Daimler Trucks North America

The Trucker Staff

3/27/2008

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) today came out strongly in favor of its Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technology to meet 2010 emissions regulations. SCR, which uses urea, is not only a proven technology already in Europe, but availability of urea in the U.S. will be non-issue because of an already-established partnership in the U.S. of various OEMs, urea distributors and others to make the substance readily available, stated Daimler officials at the Mid-America Trucking Show here.

Referring to earlier press reports quoting some OEMs as saying the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had not favored SCR early on, Chris Patterson, president and CEO of Daimler Trucks North America, said it was a “misstatement that EPA would not go near SCR.”

“We didn’t realize the gulf of misinformation [on urea] was so great. Education is a major portion of our efforts [for 2010],” noted Mike Delaney, senior vice president of marketing on SCR for DTNA.

In fact, Delaney added an EPA quote of his own, that SCR is “as good for business as it is good for the environment.”

SCR treats the exhaust downstream of the engine with a spray of Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF), which is a 32.5 percent urea solution. The ensuing chemical reaction for an instant produces ammonia gas, which mixes with exhaust gases. The ammonia gas and NOx then react in a catalyst to form nitrogen and water and leave the tail pipe with NOx levels lower than EPA requirements, according to Daimler.

In Europe, the technology is called BlueTec, and DEF is called “AdBlue.” More than 1,000 trucks are using BlueTec now, Patterson noted, adding that Mercedes Benz passenger vehicles in Europe have been using BlueTec SCR technology since October of 2006.

Delaney said, “Both testing and real world operations in Europe are showing 3 to 5 percent improvement in fuel economy” while reducing NOx particulates and that some customers are showing more fuel savings than 3 to 5 percent.

“There’s no reason we can’t expect similar results, here,” he said.

Delaney noted that SCR technology is expected to dominate the light truck sector and predicted it may represent as much as 15 percent of car sales in the U.S. in the next few years.

European OEMs, truckers and others also had fears that the urea or DEF wouldn’t be readily available, Delaney said, but that between 2006 and 2008 the heavy-duty trucks there using SCR went from 30,000 to more than 500,000. AdBlue consumption has increased in Europe from 55,000 tons in 2006 to 415,000 tons in 2007.

He noted a recent announcement by Terra Industries, one of the leading worldwide suppliers of automotive-grade urea, that it will restart production at its Louisiana plant, adding 400,000 tons of DEF capacity to its existing facilities, an announcement by Excelda, which packages bulk fluids for delivery, as coming on board, and Brenntag’s recent announcement that it also will be helping to supply urea to the heavy-duty truck market.

Larry Dutko, program manager for EPA 2010, compared the fears surrounding urea to fears that the Diesel Particulate Filters (DPFs) used in 2007 emissions technology would be problematical: “Most issues vanished once the technology hit the road,” he said.