Emissions Debate Heats Up as Daimler Defends SCR
By Bruce Harmon, Managing Editor
This story appears in the March 31 print edition of Transport Topics.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The simmering debate among truck makers over the best way to meet the government’s much tighter emissions mandate suddenly got a lot hotter here last week, as Daimler Truck executives aggressively struck back at competitors’ negative comments about the technology they have chosen — selective catalytic reduction.
The Daimler executives said leaders of other companies have used “misinformation and scare tactics” to discredit SCR. “The practice is being raised to a fine art,” said Michael Delaney, senior vice president of marketing for Daimler Trucks North America.
Chris Patterson, chief executive officer of DTNA, told a press gathering here March 27 that SCR has had an “astonishingly positive customer reception” in Europe, where it has been widely adopted by truck manufacturers to meet requirements for sharply reduced emissions of soot and nitrogen oxides.
DTNA, which makes Freightliner trucks and Detroit Diesel engines, has said it will use SCR to meet 2010 emissions regulations in the United States, which require virtual elimination of NOx. Volvo Trucks North America and Mack Trucks also have said they will use SCR, and Paccar, which makes Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks, has said it will use SCR in its proprietary large-bore engine, set to begin U.S. production in 2009.
However, International Truck and Engine Corp. has said its heavy-duty engine, based on a design shared with German truck maker MAN, will not use SCR and instead will refine its exhaust-gas recirculation process to meet 2010 requirements for NOx reduction.
In widely reported comments in January, Dee Kapur, president of International’s truck group, said SCR would become a “marooned technology” and implied that urea, a chemical that acts as a catalyst in SCR, could be a hazardous substance.
Delaney, without mentioning Kapur or International, said many customers have been confused by Kapur’s January remarks at Heavy-Duty Aftermarket Week and reported in trucking media.
Comments critical of SCR are “all completely nonsense, or worse,” Delaney said.
He told reporters that he had heard people claim Daimler’s SCR engines would be “outlawed by 2013” and that he was asked recently “how much ammonia” is in urea.
“I’m not saying there is no ammonia” in the SCR process, Delaney said, adding that it “exists for a fraction of a second” and then is either broken down or captured in the final exhaust filtering element.
Kapur, asked March 27 about his earlier remarks on SCR, said “the chemical formula for urea has an ammonia base. Then it is decomposed, but ammonia is there.”
“If you puncture a static urea tank, it will release ammonia. Would it be a big disaster? I don’t know,” Kapur said. Defending earlier remarks that it would add carbon dioxide to exhaust, he said, “In the aftertreatment process, urea produces nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water; look it up in any textbook.”
Delaney said Daimler and other truck makers that will use SCR plan to mount an educational campaign.
Until articles appeared with negative statements about SCR and urea, “we didn’t realize the gulf was so great” between what he said were the facts and what many people believe about the process, Delaney said. “We’re going to change that.”
While SCR does require a widespread supply of urea, Daimler and other truck makers are working to establish a distribution system, Delaney said.
He told reporters that before the introduction of SCR for heavy trucks in Europe, there were doubts that urea would be available, but “most of the perceived SCR issues vanished after it hit the road.”
He also said that, despite some reports, drivers will not have to add urea to fuel and will not have to fill trucks’ urea tanks every time they buy fuel. One tankful of urea will be enough for “several tanks of diesel fuel.”
Patterson and Delaney said that by using SCR, they will be able to cut NOx to acceptable levels without increasing the amount of exhaust gas recirculation in their engines. Because EGR causes engines to run hotter and decreases fuel mileage, use of SCR will improve efficiency, they said. In Europe, SCR trucks meeting the Euro 4 standard have improved fuel mileage by 3% to 5% over earlier models, Delaney said.
Because Volvo and Paccar offer Cummins EGR engines as well as their in-house products, only International and Daimler do not currently plan to give customers a choice between SCR or EGR engines.
“There’s nothing wrong with having both solutions . . . ” Patterson told Transport Topics in an interview March 27. “You can hedge your bets in that manner.”
Associate Editor Jonathan Reiskin contributed to this report.
This story appears in the March 31 print edition of Transport Topics.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The simmering debate among truck makers over the best way to meet the government’s much tighter emissions mandate suddenly got a lot hotter here last week, as Daimler Truck executives aggressively struck back at competitors’ negative comments about the technology they have chosen — selective catalytic reduction.
The Daimler executives said leaders of other companies have used “misinformation and scare tactics” to discredit SCR. “The practice is being raised to a fine art,” said Michael Delaney, senior vice president of marketing for Daimler Trucks North America.
Chris Patterson, chief executive officer of DTNA, told a press gathering here March 27 that SCR has had an “astonishingly positive customer reception” in Europe, where it has been widely adopted by truck manufacturers to meet requirements for sharply reduced emissions of soot and nitrogen oxides.
DTNA, which makes Freightliner trucks and Detroit Diesel engines, has said it will use SCR to meet 2010 emissions regulations in the United States, which require virtual elimination of NOx. Volvo Trucks North America and Mack Trucks also have said they will use SCR, and Paccar, which makes Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks, has said it will use SCR in its proprietary large-bore engine, set to begin U.S. production in 2009.
However, International Truck and Engine Corp. has said its heavy-duty engine, based on a design shared with German truck maker MAN, will not use SCR and instead will refine its exhaust-gas recirculation process to meet 2010 requirements for NOx reduction.
In widely reported comments in January, Dee Kapur, president of International’s truck group, said SCR would become a “marooned technology” and implied that urea, a chemical that acts as a catalyst in SCR, could be a hazardous substance.
Delaney, without mentioning Kapur or International, said many customers have been confused by Kapur’s January remarks at Heavy-Duty Aftermarket Week and reported in trucking media.
Comments critical of SCR are “all completely nonsense, or worse,” Delaney said.
He told reporters that he had heard people claim Daimler’s SCR engines would be “outlawed by 2013” and that he was asked recently “how much ammonia” is in urea.
“I’m not saying there is no ammonia” in the SCR process, Delaney said, adding that it “exists for a fraction of a second” and then is either broken down or captured in the final exhaust filtering element.
Kapur, asked March 27 about his earlier remarks on SCR, said “the chemical formula for urea has an ammonia base. Then it is decomposed, but ammonia is there.”
“If you puncture a static urea tank, it will release ammonia. Would it be a big disaster? I don’t know,” Kapur said. Defending earlier remarks that it would add carbon dioxide to exhaust, he said, “In the aftertreatment process, urea produces nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water; look it up in any textbook.”
Delaney said Daimler and other truck makers that will use SCR plan to mount an educational campaign.
Until articles appeared with negative statements about SCR and urea, “we didn’t realize the gulf was so great” between what he said were the facts and what many people believe about the process, Delaney said. “We’re going to change that.”
While SCR does require a widespread supply of urea, Daimler and other truck makers are working to establish a distribution system, Delaney said.
He told reporters that before the introduction of SCR for heavy trucks in Europe, there were doubts that urea would be available, but “most of the perceived SCR issues vanished after it hit the road.”
He also said that, despite some reports, drivers will not have to add urea to fuel and will not have to fill trucks’ urea tanks every time they buy fuel. One tankful of urea will be enough for “several tanks of diesel fuel.”
Patterson and Delaney said that by using SCR, they will be able to cut NOx to acceptable levels without increasing the amount of exhaust gas recirculation in their engines. Because EGR causes engines to run hotter and decreases fuel mileage, use of SCR will improve efficiency, they said. In Europe, SCR trucks meeting the Euro 4 standard have improved fuel mileage by 3% to 5% over earlier models, Delaney said.
Because Volvo and Paccar offer Cummins EGR engines as well as their in-house products, only International and Daimler do not currently plan to give customers a choice between SCR or EGR engines.
“There’s nothing wrong with having both solutions . . . ” Patterson told Transport Topics in an interview March 27. “You can hedge your bets in that manner.”
Associate Editor Jonathan Reiskin contributed to this report.
