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Jim Bowman of the Central Ohio Farm Co-op explains that diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) required in equipment manufactured beginning in 2011 cuts exhaust emissions. The product will be available at Pacific Pride on Ohio 309 in the coming weeks. / James Miller/The Marion Star |
MARION - Aware of federal requirements that aim to reduce smog, two
Marion County businesses are working together to make a nitrogen
oxide-reducing product available to heavy-duty engine users at the
pump. Diesel exhaust fluid is a 32.5 percent urea, 67.5 percent water solution used in Selective Catalytic Reduction technology. It's one way to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from heavy-duty diesel engines through selective catalytic reduction, as required by a 2007 Environmental Protection Agency rule. On-road vehicles with 2010 engines or newer that use diesel fuel are subject to the EPA's 2007 Heavy-Duty Highway Rule. Customers will be able to purchase DEF at Central Ohio Farmers Co-op's Pacific Pride fuel station this week if all goes as planned, said Barry Neagles, Central Ohio Farmers Co-op sales manager. The station is on Ohio 309 East just east of the Marion Industrial Center. "It shoots in the exhaust and cleans the air up coming out of the vehicle," he said. When the co-op decided to add DEF to its fuel station, conversations with Morral Companies, a sister company, led to the Morral-based agricultural services and products plant manufacturing the smog-reducing product. Jim Bowman, manager of Central Ohio Farmers Co-op, which has fertilizer among its products, said manufacturing DEF, which has urea among its components, was a natural extension for Morral Companies. "We were just waiting," Bowman said. "We didn't want to get out too early. We just waited for the timing to be right." |
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While DEF is available at some retail locations for purchase in a drum or tote, the co-op's Pacific Pride station will be the first in Marion County to sell it at the pump, Neagles said. The price of DEF will start at $2.60 per gallon, Bowman said, adding, "It won't fluctuate as much as gas and diesel." Diesel users typically will need 2 to 3 gallons of DEF for each 100 gallons of fuel used, Neagles said. The diesel exhaust fluid would be pumped into a separate tank usually next to the fuel tank. He said the co-op isn't sure what kind of response to expect. "Right off the bat, we really don't have a feel," he said. "Hopefully, it keeps on growing. This is just the start of it." Mark Shafer, sales and technical services at Morral Companies, said the use of DEF began in the early 2000s in Europe to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. "They've had success using it and so it's been mandated in the United States to cut down on it," Shafer said. Some diesel vehicles use exhaust gas recirculation, putting exhaust air back into the engine, which reduces engine efficiency. The selective catalytic reduction system, in which DEF is used, does not use recirculation, cleaning the exhaust emission "as it comes out," he said. Selective catalytic reduction uses a "super-sized catalytic converter" in which catalysts inside convert the nitrogen oxide chemically "so the catalytic converter can spit out just nitrogen, water and small amounts of carbon dioxide, instead of nitrogen oxide, which is fouling the air," Shafer said. Morral Companies built its own production facility to manufacture diesel exhaust fluid in August 2010, he said. The plant uses an "ultra-pure" grade of urea and water to make diesel exhaust fluid. He said company officials foresee the possibility of adding employees when DEF production picks up, noting, "It's fairly new." Adding another local component to the mix, Neagles, given the responsibility of creating a label for the DEF product, approached Tri-Rivers Career Center. Students were given the opportunity to design a label, and the top five were submitted to the co-op, which selected the one currently in use. Eventually, agricultural equipment, locomotives, ships and other non-road nitrogen oxide-producing vehicles will have to meet the new EPA requirements. "To the community in general, it means cleaner air and better health," Shafer said. "That's the bottom line." |
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| Reporter John Jarvis: 740-375-5154 or jjarvis@marionstar.com |
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