DEF Dispensers to Be Installed at 50 TravelCenters Truck Stops

TravelCenters of America said that it will install diesel exhaust fluid dispensers at fuel islands of 50 of its truck stops during 2011.

DEF is the fluid composed of urea and water that is needed to run the selective catalytic reduction systems on most new trucks built to comply with 2010 federal emissions standards.

The 50 sites will have dedicated DEF dispensers at the fueling islands where diesel is dispensed, while large aboveground DEF storage tanks will be installed away from the fuel islands, the company said in a Dec. 29 statement.

TravelCenters, Westlake, Ohio, said that it has 165 of its travel centers in the United States and 63 Petro Stopping Centers, from a company that it purchased in 2007.



“The technology we will employ integrates the DEF dispenser with our point-of-sale and other systems, so that drivers can purchase fuel and diesel exhaust fluid in a single transaction, and TA is the first travel center chain to bring this capability to market,” Thomas O’Brien, CEO of TravelCenters, said in the statement.

All TravelCenters and Petro locations currently offer 2½-gallon containers of DEF, and all of the company’s RoadSquad emergency roadside vehicles carry a supply of DEF, the company said in the statement.

TA said the first five locations will be at Petro Stopping Centers in Spokane, Wash.; Kingman, Ariz.; and El Paso, Texas; and TravelCenters in Lodi, Ohio, and Nashville, Tenn.

All heavy-duty truck brands except International selected SCR to meet Environmental Protection Agency standards to cut emissions of nitrogen oxides, on new engines built in 2010 and thereafter.