Surge in Diesel Exhaust Fluid Test Requests... "No New Test Submissions Accepted"

Transportation Environment Research Institute and Korea Petroleum Management Institute "Proceeding Faster Than the 20th"

On the 4th, a "Solo Protest by Construction Machinery Workers Urging Government Accountability for the Urea Solution Price Surge Crisis" is taking place in front of the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] The Korea Petroleum Quality Management Institute, responsible for the conformity inspection of urea solution manufacturing standards, has stated that it is not accepting new applications.

According to related industries on the 7th, since the domestic urea solution shortage crisis, requests for conformity inspections to distribute imported urea solutions domestically have surged. The responsible inspection agencies are overwhelmed with inquiry calls to the point of operational paralysis.

Urea solution, which decomposes carcinogenic substances (nitrogen oxides) emitted from diesel vehicles, must undergo a conformity inspection at a designated inspection agency before manufacturing or importing, according to the Atmospheric Environment Conservation Act.

There are two inspection agencies: the Transportation Environment Research Institute and the Korea Petroleum Quality Management Institute. They inspect whether the urea content meets the standard (minimum 31.8%, maximum 33.2%), as well as the density of the urea solution and impurity concentration.

The inspection period is within 20 days, and urea solutions that pass the inspection are marked with a certification label on the product appearance. As of the end of last month, 66 products have undergone this inspection, including Lotte Fine Chemical’s Yurox and KG Chemical’s NoxK.

The conformity inspection is essential for importing foreign urea solutions, but the Korea Petroleum Quality Management Institute, the inspection agency, has recently stopped accepting new applications due to a sudden increase in inspection requests.

The Korea Petroleum Quality Management Institute reportedly responded that due to limited personnel conducting inspections, it is difficult to accept new applications amid the influx of requests.

The other inspection agency, the Transportation Environment Research Institute, which has been responsible for post-inspections to check the quality maintenance of urea solution products that have already received certification, has decided to resume pre-inspections due to the recent surge in new inspection requests.

Some voices suggest that considering the recent domestic shortage of urea solution, additional temporary inspection agencies such as university research institutes and other specialized organizations should be designated to speed up the urea solution conformity inspection process.

Meanwhile, the Transportation Environment Research Institute and the Korea Petroleum Quality Management Institute have stated that they will strive to conduct urea solution conformity inspections faster than the legal deadline of 20 days by reinforcing personnel and other measures.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.