Regulating Truck Emissions

   / Regulating Truck Emissions #1  

Ken

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John Deere 4520,
Reading todays business section see where the new regulations for trucks will take effect 2010. and reguired that trucks are to meet the lowest threshold of nitrogen oxide emission when they roll off the assembly lines.
Then farther down states the cost per truck is expected to increase adverage of $8000.00 and the urea-based based system to cost $9000.00
What is this selective urea system and urea will cost about 4 bucks a gallon found at truck stops. is this going into the fuel or exhaust system?

Then farther down the page tires are going to be taxed additional 35% tariff for being made in China.

What is next.
ken
 
   / Regulating Truck Emissions #2  
Reading todays business section see where the new regulations for trucks will take effect 2010. and reguired that trucks are to meet the lowest threshold of nitrogen oxide emission when they roll off the assembly lines.
Then farther down states the cost per truck is expected to increase adverage of $8000.00 and the urea-based based system to cost $9000.00
What is this selective urea system and urea will cost about 4 bucks a gallon found at truck stops. is this going into the fuel or exhaust system?

Then farther down the page tires are going to be taxed additional 35% tariff for being made in China.

What is next.
ken

All 50hp and larger Diesel Engines in Tractors, Graders, Chippers, etc will face mandatory phase-out in California... unless it in 1996 or newer...

I guess Trucks Emissions is just the other shoe dropping.
 
   / Regulating Truck Emissions #3  
Most 2010 on-highway truck diesel engines will have SCR systems. Selective Catalyst Reduction is an exhaust after treatment process that uses a 32.5% urea/water solution that is injected into the exhaust stream after the turbocharger. The urea solution reacts with the NOx producing ammonia thus cutting NOx levels. Only International Truck and Engine with their new MaxForce engine will NOT use SCR. Urea solution will be sold by truck stops. Urea must be stored in plastic containers as it is reactive to metal surfaces and corrosive. Also, urea must not have evaporation of the water as it changes the urea content from 32.5% to higher percentages thus changing the effect on emissions. Urea solutions freeze. There are a host of issues that will have to be sorted out before we get a smooth operation. Urea solutions require ultra pure water in their formulation or the injection system becomes fouled. Filling the urea tank with the wrong fluid will cause some expensive repairs. With all these potential issues, SCR process works very well. It produces very clean exhaust without increasing the EGR volume into the inlet air stream.
 
   / Regulating Truck Emissions #4  
I believe Pilot has announced $2.79 per gallon for urea.
 
   / Regulating Truck Emissions #6  
Other than California, the requirement only applies to new trucks. The $9k cost is BS. The SCR catalyst has no precious metal on it so probably only adds $250 or so. The injection system, tank and pump typically has a target price of less than $1500.

When people talk of a cost of $8k, they may be talking about the entire aftertreatment system, so downpipe, Oxidation catalyst, soot filter, SCR system, Injection system, pump, tank, heat shields, hangers, muffler, stack, stanctions etc. And that would not be the OE cost, it may be replacement cost with their big mark up added.

The new vehicles that will be sold in 2010 and 2011 are just a drop in the ocean when compared to the entire transport fleet that already exists. Eventually (in 2 decades) the legislation will have a noticible effect on air quality, but it is going to take some time to get there, until all the old trucks are worn out.

Typical strategy for the urea on passenger vehicles is that the urea tank is sized to cover the mileage between service intervals and the dealer refils it when doing the service. Commercial vehicles will have a urea pump next to the diesel pump so they can fill both at the same time. Only a small % of urea is consumed per gal of diesel, since it is a catalyst. If the type of vehicle service dictates high power and thus high fuel consumption, more urea will be consumed requiring more frequent topping up of the tank.

There are really 3 different strategies available for reducing nitrogen oxide emissions

The oldest is using a nox adsorber which "stores" the nox for short periods and then periodically "regenerated" by running rich. The Nox adsorber needs a lot of precious metal, a limited number of 2007 onward Dodge rams had them and the NOX adsorber was rumored to cost over $1000 alone. Hence the spate of incidents where gangs or "inside jobs" saw off all the exhaust systems from the trucks at night and the owners face a very expensive repair the next day.

The next is the Urea selective catalytic reduction system. Urea is vaporized in the exhaust, where it dissociates into amonia. The amonia and the nitrous oxides react in a catalyst comprised of base metals (cheap) to produce nitrogen. Gasseous amonia would be great for system designers, except for the fact that it is deadly. Urea is a relatively benign way to package amonia, except it is terrible stuff to work with at the system level. Keeps lots of people employed as a result. Urea SCR was launched in Europe in 2003 by Mercedes, so the european have several years experience with it.

A more recent system is hydrocarbon selective catalytic reduction, where typically a reformer is used to burn fuel and produce a gaseous cocktail which will react with nox in a catalyst which may or may not contain precious metal. This is the technology the japanese OE's are developing.

Several factors influence the choice an OE will make regarding which strategy to follow. For 7L+ truck engines, any system based on a platinum catalyst is very expensive in first cost. On top of that, even with the sulphur reductions that have been made, there is still sufficient in the fuel to degrade the performance of the catalyst over time. So to compensate, OE's either have to increase the precious metal loading (mega $) or face a situation where the catalyst may have to be considered a service item (replace after XXXXX miles). Needing to replace very expensive catalysts as a service item does not sit well with most fleet owners (same with soot filters) so in the interest of customer satisfaction these systems typically need to be engineered to never be serviced within the waranty period. That can be over 1 million miles expected service life on large commercial vehicles.

By comparison, the urea SCR systems do not have the same up front cost, but they do have to be engineered for the application, with the heated lines and tank and lots of work calibrating the engine management.

Not enough is known about the hydrocarbon SCR systems yet to consider them low risk. Whether the fuel reformers will go the distance or pose a huge service problem etc has been a sufficient deterrent for most OE's to bypass them for now. I was under the impression that International is fighting the EPA in court regarding the emissions requirement, so right now the only thing that is clear is that if they lose they will probably have no sales next year, since they have not developed a system.

This requirement for 2010 SCR reduction systems was one reason CAT got out of the on road truck engine business. International was meant to have taken over this role, but now it is really not clear what will happen. Considering that every other OE has a system ready to go, I would be amazed if the courts found in International's favor.
 
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   / Regulating Truck Emissions #7  
Other than California, the requirement only applies to new trucks.
I was under the impression that International is fighting the EPA in court regarding the emissions requirement, so right now the only thing that is clear is that if they lose they will probably have no sales next year, since they have not developed a system.

This requirement for 2010 SCR reduction systems was one reason CAT got out of the on road truck engine business. International was meant to have taken over this role, but now it is really not clear what will happen. Considering that every other OE has a system ready to go, I would be amazed if the courts found in International's favor.

International Truck and Engine Corporation

Loks to me as if International is using an EGR system for 2010, at least up to and including Class 7 trucks.
 
   / Regulating Truck Emissions #8  
The fact is that EGR will not get Navistar in compliance with the rule. They will basically only be able to meet 2007 emission standards. Everything else is just bluff and posturing. EGR is only a part of the total solution to effective nox reduction.

If they would be compliant with the requirements, they would have no need for their lawsuit and could be smug in the knowledge that they saved quite a bit of money and development effort and would in fact have a competitive advantage compared to everyone else in the market. I doubt very much that is an accurate summary of their market position.

Navistar Challenges EPA on SCR Technology | Transport Topics Online | Trucking, Freight Transportation and Logistics News
Competitors oppose Navistar lawsuit - eTrucker
http://www.roadtransport.com/Articles/2009/08/18/134417/confusion-over-navistars-stance-on-scr.html
http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/world-trucks-blog/2009/08/navistars-spiral-of-despair-mw.html
 
   / Regulating Truck Emissions #9  
The fact is that EGR will not get Navistar in compliance with the rule. They will basically only be able to meet 2007 emission standards. Everything else is just bluff and posturing. EGR is only a part of the total solution to effective nox reduction.

If they would be compliant with the requirements, they would have no need for their lawsuit and could be smug in the knowledge that they saved quite a bit of money and development effort and would in fact have a competitive advantage compared to everyone else in the market. I doubt very much that is an accurate summary of their market position.

Navistar Challenges EPA on SCR Technology | Transport Topics Online | Trucking, Freight Transportation and Logistics News
Competitors oppose Navistar lawsuit - eTrucker
Confusion over Navistar's stance on SCR - 18/08/2009 - RoadTransport.com
Navistar's Spiral of Despair. MWM's "Sistema de pós-tratamento de gases SCR" (The World Trucks Blog)

I've got no dog in this fight, but three of your links (as well as the one I posted) clearly state International is meeting 2010 emissions with EGR. That's all I can tell you.

The entire discussion is immaterial because every step of emission compliance has resulted in lower efficiency and economy along the way. If we could have the benefit of electronic control without fiddling with cold start advance, EGR, urea and all the other crap, we might actually USE less fuel to get our work done.
 
   / Regulating Truck Emissions #10  
Rick, the articles report Navistar "saying" they will meet the regulations, while filing the lawsuit to prevent the SCR technology being permitted. If you read carefully, they also say they are using emissions credits (which they got by reducing emissions slightly below 2007 requirements). The only time you need credits is when you can't meet the requirement.

These draconian emission regulations are simply a way of forcing the issue. Manufacturers could have developed better engines by now, but they have no motivation to do so. Everything is always only "good enough". Well, the fact of life is that the manufacturers will tire of spending this much money and effort on emisson control devices and will for sure develop better engines that produce less emissions in the first place. And call for better fuel that is less polluting too (even less sulphur). More than likely the first will be seen from Germany or Japan, since in a few years the emissions regulations will be quite uniform worldwide.

Back in the 70's when catalysts were first introduced, they had a big impact on cost and performance, yet the only time you are aware of them today on a gas vehicle is when the oxygen sensor takes a dump. We are taking engines on semi's and off road equipment and cleaning them up for the first time in history. Of course there will be some pain in the beginning.
 
 
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