Dakota Gas marks first sale of new product

Dakota Gasification Company’s Great Plains Synfuels Plant is now producing and selling a new product at its urea facility.

The new product, a 40% blend of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), had its first sale January 2022.

Zach Jacobson, Dakota Gas marketing account manager, is in charge of marketing the new product. “With the addition of the 40% blend of DEF, we are able to offer more products to customers without any additional cost to produce it. This also bring us more value over granular urea,” Jacobson said.

The 40% DEF blend will be used in large combustion diesel engines, predominately for marine applications. Power plants, ethanol plants, railroads, and some other smaller markets will also make use of the product.

In addition to the 40% DEF blend, Dakota Gas currently sells 32.5% and 50% DEF blends. Jacobson said customers prefer different blends for various purposes. “For example, a customer may want to take 50% because then they are hauling less water and they can dilute it down with their own equipment,” Jacobson said.

There is currently a niche market for the 40% DEF blend, so Jacobson said he is expecting it to be the least popular of the various concentrations. “If it can still bring us additional value without additional cost, then that is a win for Dakota Gas,” Jacobson said.  

The market for the product is year-round, however demand is expected to increase during the summer months.

“Each individual market segment varies on usage. Naturally, there are more people driving in the summertime, and more construction occurs, so there is more of a need for additional product at that time. N-7 has done a great job of finding a diversity of customers in multiple market segments to keep our production going smoothly on a monthly basis,” Jacobson said.

DEF is urea liquor, which is required by law for modern diesel engines for emissions control. It is injected into the exhaust stream to react with harmful greenhouse gases. DEF is a non-hazardous solution comprised of a percentage of urea liquor compared to a percentage of de-ionized water. It has a slight smell of ammonia, similar to some home cleaning agents. DEF is used in by selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology to remove harmful NOx (nitrogen oxides) emissions from diesel engines.

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