NOT FOR CARS: A driver accidently added GoClear to a petrol engine.
NOT FOR CARS: A driver accidently added GoClear to a petrol engine.
GoClear, the diesel exhaust fluid made by Tauranga-headquartered Ballance Agri-Nutrients at its Kapuni urea plant, has caught at least one motorist out.
The woman added GoClear - used in the Selective Catalytic Reduction process incorporated into modern heavy duty diesel engines - to the tank of her petrol engine car,which soon came to a halt down the road.
"She had a petrol car, but she thought she'd put GoClear in," said Jimmie Ormsby, director of Waitomo Petroleum in Hamilton.
Ballance Agri-Nutrients process and chemicals manager, Dr Terry Smith, said it was the only case he had heard of, and he was puzzled at how the woman had managed to get the fluid into her petrol tank, given the difference in nozzle sizes. New diesel vehicles have a separate tank and nozzle cap for the fluid, which also uses a different, larger nozzle.
Mr Ormsby said he had put up new signage to ensure that people understood how to use the product. And even though the company did not believe it was at fault, it had agreed to cover the cost of servicing the customer's vehicle and was keen to publicise the incident to ensure it was not repeated.
NOT FOR CARS: A driver accidently added GoClear to a petrol engine.
Ballance has partnered with Orica Chemicals to distribute GoClear nationwide. It has been chosen by Fonterra for its milk collection fleet and the Z retail chain markets GoClear as Z Diesel Emission Cleaner, or Z DEC. The main competition for GoClear is AdBlue, an imported product distributed by SCR Solutions.
Ballance has been building up a GoClear fuel stop network nationwide. But the rural sector poses challenges, with tractors, combine harvesters and other agricultural vehicles also moving to the new diesel engines.
Mr Ormsby said that increasing numbers of rural users were bringing in their own tanks to be filled.
"But the product needs to be handled pretty carefully because it doesn't like having any contaminants in it," he said.
"If you're a farmer, you get your fuel delivered to your site," said Dr Smith. "But some large agricultural contractors are putting tanks on their truck and they'll come in and fill up with GoClear."
The best approach for rural users was to buy a new storage container suitable for the size of their operation and keep it clean and well-maintained, he said.
