Urea Tanks on Diesel Trucks

Thursday, November 5, 2009, 19:47
Diesel, News, Twitter
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Urea Tanks on Diesel Trucks—That’s the Law for All New Diesel Road Vehicles in the United States Starting in 2010

Automotive Grade of World’s Most Widely Used Nitrogen Fertilizer Used to Meet New U.S. Environmental Regulations to Cut Air Pollution

Urea SCR Systems Lower Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) Emissions From Diesel Exhaust. 80% of Diesel Trucks in Europe Now Use Urea SCR

Urea tanks will be standard equipment for most new diesel trucks, buses, cars, and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) manufactured in the United States after Jan. 1, 2010. An automotive grade of urea will be injected into the vehicles’ exhaust stream to “scrub” nitrogen oxide (NOx) from the diesel exhaust. NOx, a major air pollutant, contributes to smog, which causes asthma and respiratory and heart diseases.

The system, urea SCR or “urea-based selective catalytic reduction,” is the only technology available that can remove enough NOx from diesel exhaust to comply with strict new limits imposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), says Glenn Kedzie, Environmental Counsel for the American Trucking Associations
How Urea SCR Systems Work
Urea SCR cleans the exhaust after combustion. The urea solution is held in a separate storage tank and injected as a fine mist into the hot exhaust gases. The heat breaks the urea down into ammonia—the actual NOx-reducing agent. Through a catalytic converter, the ammonia breaks the NOx down to harmless nitrogen (N) gas and water vapor. The exhaust is no longer a pollutant; the atmosphere is about 80% nitrogen gas.
How do you feel about this law? Please let us know if you think this will work or just make diesels more expensive.
Wickedmag.com

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Tags: Diesel, Diesel Exhaust, selective catalytic reduction, Urea SCR

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Brian Gray has written 623 stories on this site.

7 Comments on “Urea Tanks on Diesel Trucks”

kngdiesel wrote on 12 November, 2009, 7:39
Who makes a bypass for this? will this decrease horsepower?Does this affect over the road truckers or just light duty trucks?
Jonathan Ladd wrote on 30 November, 2009, 18:24
Dodge’s new diesel trucks are the only one that don’t need it. GM and Ford just didn’t spend the money in research to do things the right way.
Jonathan Ladd wrote on 30 November, 2009, 18:26
If you need the power of diesel without the headache of urea buy a Dodge. I work for Airpark Dodge in Scottsdale, AZ. Dodge spent the money to make their trucks work for this new emission standard back in 07 so they made zero changes to their motor and were able to pass the test.
Todd Macoubrie wrote on 14 December, 2009, 15:36
My understanding is the tuners are still wondering if they will be able to mod the SCR systems. It is my understanding there is some speculation that the memory locations will be locked for the SCR portion of the PCM. On the new ford trucks, like many of the other manufactures using urea, if you run out of urea, the truck will run but in a limp mode until shut off. Once the truck is shut off, the truck will not restart until the urea is replaced. I would imagine that one could trick the urea level sensor to indicate there is urea in the tank when actually there is no urea (can you say voided warranty). The problem comes when the states start to require NOx measurements as part of the emissions process, which you know will start in the very near future once the 2011 diesels are released.

Dodge did not spend any money on the development of a clean burning motor. Cummins spent the money and Dodge is purchasing the technology. One must remember, Dodge and GM do not build their own diesel motors and Ford will be the only manuf. that own their own diesel with the release of the 6.7L. I do agree that Cummins has their act together.
Connor wrote on 12 April, 2010, 11:22
20101/2 dodge cab chassis have the scr system and regular dodge 3500 and 2500 2011 trucks will too
Ethen barnes wrote on 3 June, 2010, 22:08
actually for those of you wondering the diesel engines wont loose horsepower unless the urea tank is empty causing a derate in the engine. all of this is happening after the engine
GES wrote on 24 July, 2010, 1:36
None at this time trying to learn. Thinking about buying a prevost, which will have the system in 2011. If you buy before will you be grand fathered in or required to make changes? Which is better? I am thinking if its less polution sounds like a good thing.. But what will it effect and how so. Pros and cons? So much for nothing at this time turns out I have a few Questions