American truck-maker Navistar is suing the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), accusing it of putting the public at risk by allowing SCR-equipped trucks on the road in the United States, while at the same time a Navistar subsidiary is producing SCR engines for the Latin American market, Roadtransport.com has discovered.
On the one hand, Navistar has adopted the position that SCR is dangerous, and is arguing this position before the US courts; on the other, MWM, a subsidiary company, appears willing to sell this same technology to its Latin American customers.
Navistar, a recent recipient of a $39m US government grant enabling it to distribute the Modec product within the Americas, has a long-standing objection to the use of SCR within the North American market - it is the only engine manufacturer not to adopt SCR for the 2010 legislation - and is planning to use reworked versions of MAN's D20 and D26 EGR-based powerplants in order to meet EPA 10 (effectively Euro-6) emissions legislation.
In a filing in May of this year in the EPA lawsuit, Navistar alleges that the EPA engaged in "secret collaboration" with truck and engine manufacturers preferring an SCR-based route to compliance - an allegation vigorously denied by those truck and engine manufacturers as well as the EPA. The case is currently pending before the US courts; but in its latest filing of 30 July, Navistar has significantly upped the stakes, arguing: "EPA and CARB [California Air Resources Board] have put the public at risk by allowing SCR on the highway now when it may turn out later that the cure is worse than the disease."
Navistar contends that SCR releases compounds "which are carcinogenic or toxic in other ways". In order to support this argument, Navistar quotes a letter from CARB to the Health Effects Institute, which remarks: "The primary concern is the release of organo-nitrogen compounds, many of which are carcinogenic or toxic in other ways. [...] Some TACs [Toxic Air Contaminants] that have been identified with SCR technology include hydrogen cyanide, cyanic acid, nitromethane, hydrazine, acrylonitrile, acrylamide, acetonitrile and acetamide. Prudence dictates that targeted monitoring of this technology should be attempted."
CARB has moved to distance itself from the letter; asked to comment by US trade weekly Transport Topics, Hector Maldonado, a CARB air pollution specialist, downplayed the significance of the letter, saying that using it to buttress a court argument against SCR is, "in my opinion, a blatant misrepresentation".
Maldonado explains the context of the quote thus: "There is a possibility, at least in a theoretical sense, that some of these compounds could be formed. However, based on the experience we have to date, there are no alarm bells being rung, but at the same time, we are aware that there is a possibility."
Navistar's position on the dangers of SCR engines is somewhat confusing, given that its Brazilian-based subsidiary MWM International, which it has owned since 2005, already produces an SCR-equipped engine for the Latin American market, the Euro-4 compliant NGD 9.3E, and advertises the same via its website.
Roadtransport.com asked Navistar and its counsel to explain its apparently inconsistent position, but as yet has had no response.