maintenance | by Tom Jackson
TJackson@randallreilly.com
Dealing with DEF
Prepare now for a new addition to
your maintenance protocols
R
eady or not,
in the near
future you
will get to
know – and
have to manage – a
relatively new fluid for
your diesel engines. It's
called diesel exhaust
fluid, or DEF and by a
few brand names.
Although the acquisition, storage and
handling of DEF adds
another layer of complexity to your fleet
management practices,
the fluid itself is a minor
miracle when it comes
to reducing exhaust
emissions from diesel
trucks.
DEF, a liquid mixture
of high purity urea and
water, is sprayed into
the exhaust stream of
these engines and when
run through a catalyst,
the DEF turns the NOx
in the exhaust (a major
component of smog)
into mostly harmless
water and nitrogen. This
exhaust treatment technology is called selective catalytic reduction,
or SCR.
All new heavy highway and diesel pickup
truck engines have
EquipmentWorld.com | August 2013 23
