AdBlue shortage

[BritDownUnder]

Australian news outlets are beginning to report shortages of this material used in diesel engine exhaust mitigation, which was normally sourced from, where else but China. Apparently they are retaining it for themselves as the urea in it is useful as a fertiliser.

Since urea is a common component of urine I will have to offer my services to the Australian government in their hour of need.

I do recall urea being used to mitigate exhaust pollutants but I would have thought that if it is not used then simply the pollution will increase temporarily. Or am I missing something, like the world will end without AdBlue?

Interestingly urea was originally found in urine (an organic source as it was from something living) was later synthesised by chemists from precursors sourced from non-living, or inorganic materials. This led to the development of synthetic chemistry and also indirectly put us in the mess we are in now, as well bringing a lot of benefits as well.

I have yet to hear the UK media talking about this but maybe the UK still makes most of its own chemicals. Now I know why there are almost no Chemistry related jobs to be found in Australia.

[Potemkin Villager]

Surely you cannot be suggesting that environmentally
conscious Bruces should be shaking their snakes into
diesel fuel tanks!

[adam2]

Not aware of any UK shortage, plenty on fleabay at about £600/£750 for 1000 liters. Do not know what the usual price is.

[clv101]

My car uses AnBlue, a very small amount. I typically have over a year's worth in stock.

[BritDownUnder]

I checked but it appears none of my vehicles use it. From what I can discover, the engine management system checks if there is AdBlue in the bottle and if there is none, or it runs out, allows you to drive back somewhere and then the engine will not start again. Not much help if you are in the Outback but there you go. I am not sure if there will be any lasting damage to the engine if there AdBlue is not sprayed into the exhaust gases. All I can see is there being damage to any catalyst further down the exhaust from the pollutants.

I would guess that there is a level sensor in the AdBlue tank that could probably be fooled along with maybe some form of smarter sensor that can detect if there is just plain water put in the AdBlue bottle instead of the real stuff. I can see there being a small industry cropping up in the near future in spoofing these sensors.

All in all I am glad I ordered an electric car. Let's hope there are no nasty surprises like a special kind of Chinese sourced electricity required to run it.

[adam2]

No damage will be done to the engine in the absence of adblue. It is added to the exhaust system well downstream of the engine. The engine does not "know" if adblue be added to the exhaust or not.

The engine management system does know, and depending on the vehicle will either prohibit re-starting, or restrict performance in the absence of adblue. This is done to prevent use of the vehicle without the additive and thereby to protect local air quality, not to protect the engine.