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Today's Trucking - Product Watch
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November 20, 2008
LET'S TALK UREA
by Rolf Lockwood
November 19, 2008 Vol. 4, No. 24
Amidst all the fury and fear-mongering about our woeful state of financial affairs, and I mean pretty much the entire industrialized world, one trucking subject remains at the top of many interest lists: the North American engines of 2010.
With International vowing to stick with EGR but urging the EPA to delay the implementation of the '010 emissions rules, all other engine makers are working hard to allay fears about the switch to SCR, or selective catalytic reduction. As with the motors of 2002/04 and then 2007, the price of a diesel will rise by upwards of $10,000 in 11 months' time. But that's not what has people worried, a serious hike though it is. Nobody's worried enough to create another pre-buy situation because hardly anyone can afford to buy new trucks anyway. The potential disruption of a pre-buy has become a non-issue.
The worry is focused on DEF, or diesel exhaust fluid, what we just called urea until recently. Every 2010 engine's aftertreatment system will need to drink it, and every '010 truck will have a tank hanging off the frame rails holding about 30 liters of the stuff. If that little tank runs empty, and it will get you about 5000 miles, there will be minor or major hell to pay.
For a while it seemed many of us were lulled into thinking that the infrastructure required to supply DEF across North America, while a big challenge, would be dealt with by... well, by those who deal with such things. After all, it was accomplished more or less seamlessly in Europe.
Well, not so fast.
At an event called the Diesel Exhaust Fluid Forum held last week in San Diego, Ca., organized in part by Diesel Progress magazine, it became clear that the DEF supply challenge is far more complicated than most of, me included, thought. I couldn't get to this inaugural event myself, but my colleague Marco Beghetto, senior editor on Today's Trucking magazine, was there and he came back with interesting tales to tell. I had an extensive briefing on the conference in the smoking room at our office -- read, outside the back door, where all the best meetings take place -- and here's what I learned.
First off, as we all know, 2010 is what Marco calls a "cosmetic deadline" because very few DEF-toting trucks will be on the road until we're well into 2010 and maybe well beyond. Heck, there still aren't that many '07 trucks on the road. In any case, the infrastructure doesn't have to be 100% in place as the clock ticks down to midnight on Dec. 31, 2009. But it may never be, at least not in Canada.
There won't be many issues in the U.S. at the outset, but here in Canada things are a bit different since we have fewer truckstops spread much further apart.
As I reported a few months ago, and Marco confirms, many truckstops and dealers will first have portable 1000-gallon tanks on hand, but where they go will be based on regional demand and grow from there. For example, only years from now will truckstops actually start to bury tanks for urea as new facilities are slowly built. So it's thought that most drivers will have to tote DEF containers around for the first year or so.
The only truckstop chain that's made any public pronouncements as far as I'm aware is Pilot Travel Centers, with more than 325 owned or licensed locations in 40 states -- and one province, Ontario. It recently announced plans to be the first to carry DEF “at the pump,” saying it would be "economically available in bulk at more than 100 Pilot Travel Center locations nationwide beginning in mid-to-late 2009." The idea is to have urea conveniently available during normal fuel fill-ups. At its other truckstop locations, you'll find pre-packaged top-off quantities of the fluid. Pilot has been working with Detroit Diesel to organize all of this.
That notion of topping up the DEF tank during a normal fill of the saddle tanks, without moving the truck elsewhere in the truckstop or cardlock, is something we probably assume, but wait a minute. Marco reports that there's an issue here about the physical location of DEF pumps at truckstops. In some cases it seems they'll be separate from the diesel pumps. Drivers, who these days have little time to spare, may be forced to go to two lanes because not all of them will have both diesel and DEF. In some cases there will be a dedicated DEF lane. Looks like a major source of frustration is possible.
Staying with truckstops, Marco reports that a J.B. Hunt representative raised concerns at the DEF conference about billing. It's going to be essential for fleets, when it comes to swiping cards at truckstops or cardlocks, that there's only a single transaction fee for diesel and DEF. However, the two items will have to be displayed separately for tax and accounting purposes.
Eventually, many fleets (especially larger ones or local guys who don't hit the interstates or the populous parts of the Trans Canada) will want to install tanks at their terminals. However, says Marco, getting those tanks filled may be an issue, especially in remote parts of Canada. Unlike USLD, which can be delivered in a tanker along with gasoline and conventional No 2 diesel, DEF needs a completely dedicated transport system. A pipeline is no good, obviously, so you'll need fuel haulers with dedicated DEF tankers -- something that may be hard to find in some regions.
The freezing issue came up at the DEF conference but was shown to be a small matter because portable and bulk DEF tanks, like those on the truck itself, will come with heating capability.
And what about the price of DEF? Well, conference-goers apparently learned that present-day suppliers of urea are already doing quite well selling the stuff in the agricultural market where it's a key component of fertilizers but they'll eventually be lured into the truck market. However, there's already some price volatility with urea, seen mostly in Europe, and it could conceivably be a factor here.
There's certainly going to be expanded demand for urea. The Engine Manufacturers Association figures that trucking consumption will be about 55 million gallons in 2010, rising to 172 million gallons in 2011, a billion by 2017.
The bottom line here is that urea will be available but it may not be perfectly convenient to fill your tanks. And for many Canadians without easy access to DEF supply, trucking life may involve using very small containers of the stuff for quite a while.
This newsletter is published every two weeks. It's a heads-up notice about what's going on with trucking technology as well as what you can see at
www.todaystrucking.com where you'll find in-detail coverage of nearly everything that's new. Plus interesting products that may not have had the 'air play' they deserved within the last few months. Why not subscribe today?
And while you’re there at todaystrucking.com, check out the Decision Centers. They’re essentially libraries on specific subjects like Engines or Braking Systems. We’ve gathered all manner of information from maintenance manuals to research reports to help you make informed decisions about spec’ing, operating, and maintaining trucks and truck systems.
I should remind you that I don’t endorse any of the products I write about in this e-newsletter, nor do I have the resources to test them. What you’re getting is reasonably well educated opinion based on three decades in trucking. And in the case of the individual product items, I’m presenting simple news from the manufacturer or service provider, with the hyperbole removed and clarification applied.
If you have comments of whatever sort about Product Watch, or maybe a gizmo I should know about, please contact me at
rlockwood@newcom.ca.
- By IronWolf2
