E&MU: DEF Storage and Testing Grows as Fleets Move to SCR Engines
This story appears in the January/February 2013 issue of Equipment & Maintenance Update, a supplement to the Jan. 21 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
CINCINNATI — As the amount of diesel exhaust fluid poured into U.S. and Canadian trucks continues to grow, laboratory chemists are working on how to test the liquid for purity, and vehicle operators are installing underground storage tanks for the added volume.
As of this year, nearly all new heavy-duty trucks and most medium-duty trucks sold are using DEF to run their selective catalytic reduction pollution-control systems. Navistar Inc. had tried to offer a competing technology but is completing its switch to SCR this year.Participants at a DEF Forum here said the all-SCR market is pushing truck operators and their vendors to buy in tank-truck bulk quantities rather than smaller containers.
“There is rapid pressure for bulk infrastructure development. It’s pedal to the metal there, and I think DEF will soon mirror fuel distribution [by tank truck] instead of totes [in vans],” said Douglas Haugh, president of Mansfield Oil Co.
Mansfield predicts that sales of DEF in 275- or 330-gallon totes will rise slowly, while cases of 2½-gallon jugs will stay roughly the same. In contrast, less-than-truckload shipments from tank trucks, ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 gallons, will boom between now and 2020.
Haugh said he thinks that, by the end of 2014, a majority of gallons of DEF sold will move by tank truck, LTL or truckload, to end-users.
“We’ve seen tremendous growth away from totes to in-ground infrastructure,” said Jeff Lewis, vice president of sales for Airgas Specialty Products, comparing January 2012 with the previous fall.
With all North American heavy-duty truck makers now using SCR with DEF as their pollution-control technology, the need for tank trailers is predicted to grow significantly.
Integer Research Ltd., the London-based sponsor of the DEF Forum, estimates that 2012 DEF usage in the United States and Canada was about 135 million gallons in 2012 and that it will rise to about 205 million gallons this year and to more than 300 million gallons in 2014.
DEF is a solution of urea — a carbon-nitrogen-oxygen-hydrogen compound usually used as fertilizer — dissolved in distilled water.
The DEF makers and distributors at the forum said they insist upon using dedicated tank trailers and railcars for moving the product around North America.
“We want to own the supply chain and understand every piece of equipment that plays a part. We need to know the trailer’s number and not just the carrier’s name,” said Donald Thomas, director of technical service and quality programs for CF Industries, a urea manufacturer and DEF producer.
Lewis and Haugh agreed with Thomas on the need for dedicated equipment, as did Chad Dombroski of Yara North America.
DEF sales are not regulated by the state or federal governments, but industry groups have set standards. ISO, the International Organization for Standardization based in Switzerland, has a manufacturing standard for DEF, calling for it to contain 32.5% urea, give or take 0.7%.
The American Petroleum Institute has a voluntary quality certification program, and ASTM International is developing a testing procedure so laboratories can analyze samples of DEF and match them against the ISO standard.
Joe Franklin, manager of analytical testing for Intertek Automotive Research and chairman of the ASTM committee, said its purpose is not to replace the ISO standard “but to enhance and supplement it.”
The SCR catalyst is sensitive to many minerals and can be “poisoned” by inferior DEF.
The ISO standard says DEF should never have more than 0.5 milligram per kilogram of fluid for five metals: aluminum, calcium, iron, magnesium or sodium. For four other metals the tolerance is even tighter at 0.2 milligram per kilogram of fluid: chromium, copper, nickel and zinc.
The distributors also said DEF has a limited shelf life, so it is important to use first what comes in first. Truck operators should avoid lengthy storage, they said.
Forum panelists said stores will keep selling 2½-gallon jugs and truck stops will have DEF pumps, but “there is a pretty profound shift” to on-site bulk storage, said Norm Winkler, national sales director of Titan Chemical Transfer Solutions.
The tanks are usually made of polyethylene or fiberglass, but PVC — polyvinyl chloride — should be avoided for DEF tanks, Winkler said.
Rick Whately, a sales manager for Xerxes Corp., a manufacturer of tanks for DEF and other products, said tanks can have fullness sensors built in and that a fiberglass tank has a 30-year warranty. He recommended using a trained installer rather than a do-it-yourself installation.
Jason Harrington, a sales manager for Snyder Industries, also a tank maker, said sturdiness is important because low-density plastics tend to fall victim to infiltration and then either become soft or brittle.
