SCR vs EGR, THAT IS THE QUESTION

April 9, 2008 Vol. 4, No. 8

With a huge sigh of relief, I can tell you that the 37th annual Mid-America Trucking Show has come and gone. I say ‘relief’ because it’s a very, very busy place. The show, known as MATS, opens on Thursday for the masses, but things start with a Cummins dinner on Tuesday night for most of us in the press. And it never slows down after that. That said, the annual trek to Louisville, Kentucky is also a lot of fun for a gearhead like yours truly. All that hardware!

And this year some controversy, a lot of it, about emissions solutions for 2010. This was bound to happen. Following disparaging comments about selective catalytic reduction made by International Truck & Engine president Dee Kapur a couple of months ago (see the link below to our Newsfirst story), there was a response from Freightliner – sorry, I mean Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) -- in Louisville. Senior marketing vice president Mike Delaney threw down the gauntlet at the company’s annual MATS breakfast, devoting his entire presentation to “...dispelling the SCR misinformation being tossed about.”

Earlier in the press conference, DTNA president and CEO Chris Patterson made the company’s 2010 plans clear, though they’d been known for more than a year. “We will be utilizing Daimler’s BlueTec technology for our Detroit Diesel engines beginning in 2010,” he said. “The technology is clearly the best choice for our customers... the only means of meeting the stringent 0.2 g/kWh NOx standard for heavy-duty diesel engines in 2010 while actually reducing diesel fuel consumption in comparison with the technology used in 2007 engines.”

“BlueTec” is the Daimler moniker that refers to the urea that will be injected into the aftertreatment system of 2010 SCR engines, though it appears to have a new formal name – DEF, an acronym for Diesel Exhaust Fluid. As if we need another acronym.

Urea works with exhaust heat and a catalyst to convert nitrous-oxide emissions into harmless pure nitrogen and water vapor. Trucks using SCR will have an extra tank, with a capacity ranging from five to perhaps 30 gal, hanging from the frame rails to hold the urea supply. In some cases frame space is at a serious premium, so this could be a challenge in some configurations.

But let’s set the larger stage here. Clearly, we’re going to have a split down the middle of the market, with some engines using SCR and some not. On the SCR side we have Mack/Volvo and Detroit Diesel, plus the new engines coming from Paccar in 2010, based on the European DAF motor. On the other side we have International, with its heavy-duty MaxxForce engines co-developed with Germany’s MAN, and Cummins. The latter pair say they’ll continue to use cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and diesel particulate filters (DPF) for on-highway trucks, just as they do now. They say EPA standards can be achieved by in-cylinder means, and they won’t need any other form of NOx aftertreatment.

Caterpillar, amidst rampant speculation about its future intentions – maybe even becoming a truck builder via some sort of link with Navistar? – has yet to make a 2010 pronouncement.

Cummins vice president and heavy-duty engine chief Steve Charlton says not much will actually change in his company’s ‘010 motors. Next-generation EGR doesn’t add complexity, he says, and power, torque, fuel economy and maintenance intervals will remain the same as today. Engineering development, as I told you in my last newsletter, is going smoothly, he says.

The 2010 heavy-duty engine is getting “refinements” to combustion, air handling, and EGR integration. It will use the XPI high-pressure common rail fuel system designed and built by the company's joint venture with Scania. It’s said to generate better performance and cleaner exhaust by maintaining high injection pressures regardless of engine speed. It will also continue to use the proven and reliable variable-geometry turbocharger designed in-house by Cummins Turbo Technologies, and the DPF also created in-house by Cummins Emission Solutions.

Cummins is unique in this context, because its medium-duty engines will use SCR for 2010. The addition of a proven NOx-reduction system with a catalytic converter will be straightforward because in 2006 it launched this very technology in Europe to meet the Euro 4 standard.

In its typical quiet way, the company just says it will provide “the right solution” for the application.

International’s Dee Kapur is a little more flamboyant. When asked about the future of SCR by my colleague Marco Beghetto at the Heavy Duty Dialogue in Las Vegas this past January, he said: "We don’t like it." Similar sentiments were expressed at MATS.

In Vegas, Kapur pointed to the continental infrastructure required to replenish urea tanks. He also mentioned that urea is known to gel up in cold climates, saying tanks would need to be fitted with automatic heating and cooling solutions. Enforcement for urea compliance is a big question as well, he said.

"There may be some applications for SCR, but if so, we think it's a stop-gap solution, and it will be marooned in the future," he said. "After 2012 or 2014, it's done. After that, who's going to buy those vehicles?"

All of that set the stage for DTNA’s Mike Delaney.

“Given U.S. driving conditions characterized by steady cruising speeds on the highways and enormous overland distances, the new BlueTec system will show its advantages early on,” he said in Louisville. “The BlueTec system with SCR technology is projected to increase fuel efficiency by about 3 to 5% -- significant fuel savings in a typical North American truck fleet.”

That’s the key to SCR, it seems, and it may well be – if this projection proves to be true as it has in Europe for the most part -- that the fast-rising price of diesel will push some truck buyers in this direction.

And what about urea distribution? Delaney said that a urea tank will need refilling only about every 5000 to 6000 miles, assuming a 20-gal. tank in a typical highway application, and that shouldn’t be an issue.

“With the massive effort currently underway to establish the DEF distribution infrastructure in North America, we’re not concerned in the least about availability,” he said. “With just the 800 or so outlets created by the participants already committed, we have more than enough to get started, but there will be a lot more than that. Let’s put it this way – with a 5000-mile range, you’d have to try pretty hard to miss them.”

In most cases, he said in a later conversation that also included Detroit Diesel’s Dave Siler, urea will first be sold in jugs, with proper pumps being added as demand dictates. Both TA and Petro truckstops are preparing for 2010 with such packaging in mind, Siler told me.

Note, by the way, the accompanying photos. One shows the urea tank on a Mercedes Axor medium-duty truck in Germany. The second shows a urea-dispenser at a DAF dealership in England. In Europe, urea is called AdBlue for some reason.

In a separate presentation at Mid-America, Brenntag, one of the largest chemical producers globally, said it will soon begin producing urea for the North American market. The largest distributor of automotive grade urea in the world, the company said it will ramp up through its network of 120-plus locations in the U.S. and Canada.

Brenntag's national program – ‘Urea 2010’ – aims to provide DEF availability to SCR engine and truck makers as well as fleet operators. The program is designed to co-ordinate the necessary supply of urea, blending capabilities, and packaging options. It’s been a key player in developing the European DEF infrastructure.

"While North American operations have different challenges than in Europe, we don't see any of these challenges as show stoppers," says Chet Murphy, vice president of market development.

The company can deliver urea in drums right now. "Commercial dispensing of DEF at major truckstops will be addressed as we move closer to 2010," says Murphy.

So in the end, what will we have? It’s anybody’s guess, really. Even the bravest trucking prognosticators and Wall Street analysts are unwilling to speculate much as to how truck buyers will respond. The need to worry about and pay for one more fluid will definitely keep some truck operators in the EGR camp, probably more so in the long-haul world. And it might even influence the trucks they buy. On the other hand, if SCR really does produce significant fuel savings, the sharply rising cost of diesel will be a compelling factor for some folks, maybe for many.

In the end, I believe the issue will be decided on the basis of which engines work best. The engine that puts a truck in the shop less often than the other one is the engine that will win. The stakes are pretty high here, but I think the issue is really that simple.

AND FINALLY, MID-AMERICA wasn’t only about the matter of 2010 emissions compliance. There was much else going on, of course, like the first presentation to the mainstream trucking public of International’s dramatic LoneStar and Mack’s big Titan. Both drew big crowds.

There weren’t many earth-shattering introductions otherwise, though a few products took my fancy, some of which are covered in the individual items that accompany this newsletter. Like Webb Wheel’s elegantly engineered Vortex brake drum and Phillips Industries’ new i-Box trailer nosebox. The cool thing about the latter is that it has room for flash memory to store important trailer schematics, bills of material, maintenance records, and other important data. On a Vanguard trailer at the show, its i-Box had two USB ports to shuffle information around.

I’ve only touched the surface of the news from Mid-America here, so look for more in a couple of weeks.

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 www.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 – and we’re always finding more – to help you make decisions about spec’ing, operating, and maintaining trucks and truck systems.

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.

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TRAILER STABILITY

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COOL, LIGHT BRAKE DRUM

(April 09, 2008) -- From Webb comes the unique Vortex drum, promising light weight and long lining life

PETERBILT’S COMFORTCLASS

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MICHELIN’S XDN2 RETREAD

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