Technical Committee Storage, Transportation and Distribution

AdBlue as a Reducing Agent for the Decrease of NO X Emissions from Diesel Engines of Commercial Vehicles

The Parliament of the European Union has issued stricter emission standards (Euro 4 and 5) for diesel engines of HD (heavy duty) commercial vehicles for the years 2005 and 2008.
After comparing and testing various technical options the European manufacturers of HD commercial vehicles have agreed on one method, the „selective catalytic reduction" (SCR) and on one reducing agent, AdBlue, an aqueous solution of urea.
The European automobile industry plans to successively equip HD vehicles with the SCR technology.
The automobile industry assumes that mineral oil industry and trade will make available the reducing agent AdBlue via a separate tanking system at their public service stations — eventually in a balanced distribution throughout Europe.
This report describes the activities of national and international committees engaged in the introduction of the SCR/urea technology.
It also outlines questions as yet unresolved with respect to the new technical and logistic requirements.