Urea tanks on diesel trucks -- that's the law in the United States starti...(Inc. in Virginia United States thinks th...)

New Demands Could Affect World Fertilizer Market

Keith Stokes, proprietor of Stokes Engineering and IFDC consultant on urea production, says, "Urea for NOx reduction will create a new demand that could drive up fertilizer pricesjust as ethanol production did."

But Doran of SCR Stakeholders says, "Demand for this automotive-grade urea is not expected to exceed 5% of the world's production. The new use of urea to control vehicle emissions could lead to increased investment and expand world capacity for urea production."

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 ammoniathe 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.

Bill Herz, Vice President of Scientific Programs for The Fertilizer Institute, based in Washington, D.C., says, "You hear a lot about harmful effects of fertilizer on ecosystemsbut little about the positive role of urea in stripping away pollutants."

Doran says, "Because SCR technologies reduce NOx exhaust to almost zero, engines can be tuned to maximize fuel efficiency." The result is as much as a 3%𔃃% fuel savings and reduced carbon dioxide emissions.

"The exhaust coming from the tailpipe of an SCR-equipped vehicle may actually be cleaner than the air around it," Doran adds.

In fact, according to Daimler Trucks, the engine efficiency achieved by
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