ESTA – the European association for the abnormal road transport and mobile crane rental industry – has been compiling survey responses from member companies.
In the three months since its AdBlue survey was launched, ESTA has had responses from 55 companies from 10 different countries with the biggest numbers coming from the UK, the Netherlands and France.
Some calculate that a third of all on-road breakdowns are AdBlue related.
Crane and haulage companies reported problems with mobile and crawler cranes, trucks and SPMTs. The most common incident was a public road breakdown with almost half of the respondents saying that safety had been compromised as a result.
A small number reported dangerous interruptions to wind turbine and port load-out work.
Even more concerning, many of the companies said they had experienced multiple incidents in the past two years with three suffering more than 20 in that time.
AdBlue is a mixture of water and urea used in diesel engines to minimise the production of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. It reacts with NOx in the catalytic converter, breaking it down into nitrogen and water vapour in a process known as selective catalytic reduction (SCR).
A key concern is that if the AdBlue system malfunctions – often because the engine is not hot enough to burn off the crystalisation – then the crane’s engine can lose power and will eventually shut down, with potentially dangerous consequences.
ESTA director Ton Klijn said: “We will continue gathering information and will be consulting with the members of the joint ESTA and FEM European Regulations Workgroup that first raised the issue, and then decide on the next steps.”
FEM is Fédération Européenne de la Manutention – the European Materials Handling Federation – which represent machinery manufacturers.
Klijn continued: “What is already clear, however, is that this is a serious issue with considerable safety implications – and it needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.”
He suggested that one solution might be for the engine manufacturers to develop some sort of override that would allow the engine to keep operating for a limited period despite the AdBlue system malfunction.
But engine manufacturers are reportedly reluctant to invest in diesel engine redesign, he said, at a time when their commercial emphasis is on developing electric powertrains.
There are products on the market that claim to prevent AdBlue-related breakdowns.
Optispray, for example, is AdBlue with a surfactant added that changes the surface tension of the AdBlue allowing it to hydrolyse at lower temperatures. It prevents the build-up of white cyanuric acid spots.
Effinox is AdBlue with an added reagent that not only prevents the build-up but also removes the deposits.
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