There is "adiblue" or "ad-Blue" and AdBlue

Today nearly all people driving a new diesel car Euro 6 know exactly what AdBlue is (a reducing agent used to break down nitrogen oxides (NOx) present in exhaust gasses of new diesel engines provided with SCR system) but a few of them know that an AdBlue of bad quality can cause serious damages to the car after-treatment system and great costs for the owner.

AdBlue saw its first appearance on industrial vehicles in 2006 with the introduction of the Euro 4 legislation and consequently on all diesel engines for off-road applications such as agricultural, and construction machines, recently it made his appearance on Euro 6 diesel-powered cars starting from September 2016.

Due to the introduction of this last regulation nearly all new diesel cars today are provided with an AdBlue tank with an average size of 17l and have an AdBlue consumption around 1,5 l/1000km (this consumption will increase further with the introduction of Euro 6c regulation). Each car needs to refill the AdBlue tank at regular intervals and if the AdBlue tank gets empty the car engine will not be able to start again.

What few people know, however, is that car will not start again too when the AdBlue they have used to refill the tank is of bad quality. AdBlue of bad quality will stack the SCR catalyst and reduce the exit of exhaust gasses till the complete blockage of the SCR system.

It is important to notice that not all AdBlue present in the market has the same quality.

AdBlue is a registered trademark of the VDA (Association of German Vehicle Manufacturers), but VDA only issues the license to use the brand and AdBlue is produced and self-certified by the producer that should perform quality analysis of each batch before selling it on the market.

VDA does not perform quality audit on the product present in the market, it is therefore the Producer's brand that is the only guarantee of quality and seriousness of the product, not the license. (There are many manufacturers who do not even have the license of the brand and counterfeit the product).

From a market analysis conducted at the end of 2017 on 10 l AdBlue tanks present in the Italian market, it turns out that 67% of the products sold as AdBlue or even with similar words AdiBlue, Ad-Blue, AdJblue are largely out of specification and can create serious damages to the vehicle’s SCR system in which they are used. These problems are also going to become more frequent thanks to the increase in AdBlue consumption in the new Euro 6 engines, from an initial 1-2% to about 3-5%. This means that the impurities present in the product are deposited more quickly in the catalyst system and therefore also the damage will happen in reduced times.

So it is better to use only original and high quality AdBlue if you do not want to have problems with your vehicle, better spend something more today (the difference between a good quality product and one of undoubted quality is of the order of a few cents €) that much more tomorrow.

BASF is the main supplier of all manufacturers of industrial vehicles and passengers cars. The constant quality and extreme purity of AdBlue by BASF and its ability to react at low temperatures in the catalytic system, make it perfectly suitable for use on industrial vehicles and even more on the recent Euro 6 diesel cars, which are much more sensitive to product quality.