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Updated:
7/26/2010 10:00:00 AM
Company Touts EGR Results in ‘Fluid Efficiency’ Test
By Jonathan S. Reiskin, Associate News Editor
This story appears in the July 26 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
Fleet managers should consider total “fluid efficiency” when comparing trucks using exhaust gas recirculation engines with those using selective catalytic reduction, truck and engine maker Navistar Inc. said last week.
Navistar, whose Class 8 trucks are the only ones in the United States using EGR, said in an online press conference July 19 that fluid efficiency includes the diesel exhaust fluid required by SCR engines along with diesel fuel.
Navistar paid consulting firm Transportation Research Center to compare its ProStar+ tractor powered by a Navistar MaxxForce 13-liter engine with vehicles made by competitors Freightliner Trucks and Kenworth Truck Co. in terms of combined diesel fuel and diesel exhaust fluid usage. Navistar said it beat both rivals.
While Navistar Senior Vice President James Hebe heralded the results, Freightliner’s parent company, Daimler Trucks North America
, said the test was invalid.
“Our competitors talk about only one fluid, diesel fuel, and treat DEF as if it didn’t exist,” Hebe said, commenting on claims by SCR proponents that SCR gets better fuel mileage than EGR. The two technologies are alternatives for meeting 2010 federal emissions standards for diesel truck engines.
The tests were run in June and July in northern Indiana. The trucks went around a 444-mile loop three times, a total of 1,332 miles.
The tested Kenworth T660 with a 15-liter Cummins ISX engine used 204 gallons of diesel and DEF — 2.5% more fluid than the 199 gallons of diesel fuel burned by the Navistar truck. EGR engines do not use DEF, a urea-water mixture SCR engines need to remove nitrogen oxides. The study did not break out the amount of fuel versus DEF, but most SCR manufacturers have said the fuel-DEF ratio is usually 50-1.
Kenworth spokesman Jeff Parietti declined to comment.
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