By Jonathan S. Reiskin, Associate News Editor
This story appears in the April 5 print edition of Transport Topics.LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Companies offering selective catalytic reduction technology for 2010 engines displayed a variety of hardware for dispensing diesel exhaust fluid.
Meanwhile, at another end of the exhibit floor here, a subsidiary of Navistar Inc. joined a group of manufacturers looking for ways to improve fuel economy or reduce nitrogen oxide emissions that do not use liquid urea — the main ingredient in DEF.
The North American SCR Stakeholders Group, developer of the Web site FactsAboutSCR.com, displayed truck-stop equipment, jugs and 300-gallon intermediate bulk containers and showed a new Web site to help drivers find DEF at more than 1,600 locations in the United States and Canada.
Also staffing a booth at the Mid-America Trucking Show, March 24-27, was Innovative Trucking Solutions, a collaborative effort by Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, Tenneco Inc., Amerigon Inc. subsidiary BSST LLC and Navistar’s PurePower Technologies.
Innovative Trucking Solutions is “a group of like-minded companies formed to focus attention on new trucking technology that is customer-friendly and without liquid urea,” said a Navistar executive.
Robert Carso, who directs marketing and strategy for Navistar’s engine group, said Innovative is not selling anything right now but mainly aiming to relay information.
“We want to showcase future technologies under development,” Carso said.
However, the companies participating in ITS are selling systems. Bendix talked about air management systems that improve performance, including engine devices Electronic Air Control and Pneumatic Booster System.
In addition to manufacturing brakes, Bendix makes truck safety and air management systems.
Tenneco said it is working on a lean NOx hydrocarbon catalyst that reduces emissions with solids rather than liquids. The company makes diesel particulate filters and diesel oxidation catalysts to treat exhaust.
BSST does not address emissions but is researching how to improve trucking efficiency by capturing the substantial quantities of waste heat a truck generates and turning it into useful electric energy.
Navistar’s PurePower makes diesel particulate filters, exhaust gas recirculation valves and other EGR parts and NOx-reduction catalysts. Navistar bought the South Carolina firm in November (11-9, p. 6).
Navistar further bolstered its engineering research the following month when it added Danish NOx technology company Amminex.
SCR Stakeholders’ new Web site, www.discoverDEF.com, is intended as an alternative to the Department of Energy’s site, www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/locator/def, which was introduced at MATS in 2009. The SCR group is made up of truck and engine makers using SCR — all of them, except for Navistar — and manufacturers and distributors of diesel exhaust fluid.
The main companies operating the DEF booth were Brenntag North America, a major diesel exhaust fluid distributor, and Terra Environmental Technologies, the manufacturer of TerraCair DEF.
Contrary to some earlier reports, ArvinMeritor Inc. is not a member of ITS.
