Tracerco, a company working in collaboration with catalyst maker Johnson Matthey, has developed a novel technique for verifying the quality of AdBlue in an SCR vehicle's urea tank. It involves the use of a tracer additive which is being offered to AdBlue producers for inclusion, at a rate of only 10ppm (parts per million), at the blending stage, enabling in-service spot checks to be made at any time, using a hand-held sampler/analyser.
The system is claimed to detect levels of adulteration
down to 5%. Using more sophisticated laboratory analysing equipment, smaller contamination levels down to 2% can be identified, says Tracerco.
Business manager Matt Darwood says that particular interest had been shown in the system by truck rental companies, whose customers might be tempted to top up AdBlue tanks with cheap urea solutions not complying with the DIN70070 standard, resulting in permanent damage to SCR catalysts which could cost up to £3,000 each to replace.
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