CHEMICAL INDUSTRY

Automotive grade urea is the raw material to produce a kind of liquid for reducing nitrogen oxide pollution in diesel vehicle exhaust.

Urea is the world’s most commonly used nitrogen fertilizer and indeed more urea is manufactured by mass than any other organic chemical. Containing 46% N, it is the most concentrated nitrogen fertilizer, and is readily available as free-flowing prills (granules). It is the cheapest form of nitrogen fertilizer to transport and it is also the least likely to ‘cake’. It is therefore favoured in developing countries.

An increasingly important use of urea is in reducing air pollution from diesel engines in cars, buses and lorries. Diesel engines run at high temperatures and nitrogen and oxygen, from the air, are able to react together under these conditions to produce high concentrations of nitric oxide. One way to remove this pollutant is to allow it to react with ammonia to form nitrogen.