A vehicle-specific urea solution could help trucks and commercial vehicles lower their emissions to meet China's latest regulations.
After new national emissions standards were introduced on July 1st 2013, many of China’s major cities are still debating the best ways to meet the stringent criteria. For diesel powered trucks, SUVs, commercial vehicles and even some passenger cars urea could be the answer.
Urea can be used to help process and clean up diesel, with some advanced urea technologies reducing NOx emissions to near-zero levels. A tank filled with a urea solution is fitted before the SCR Catalyst, which injects automotive grade urea to essentially ‘scrub’ the nitrogen oxide.
There are several advantages to urea, which is already widely used across the US and Europe. Firstly, the technology is readily available and could be fitted to new models easily. Secondly, establishing distribution networks for the urea solution would be reasonably straightforward.
However, using urea technology in China also carries several disadvantages. The solution begins to crystallise at temperatures below minus 11 degrees C, meaning it would be inappropriate for China’s wintry northern climbs. Furthermore, training mechanics in the urea technology would also be a costly and time-consuming operation.