Stepan Company: Green Solvents for A More Sustainable Agriculture

Jason Chen
Market Manager, Stepan Agricultural Solutions

Consumers are looking for more eco-friendly products with the increased awareness of health hazards and environmental concerns from agriculture.¹ In response, agrochemical formulators are continuously looking for safer alternative ingredients to address these concerns. This leads to increased demand for green solvents that have lower volatile organic compounds (VOC), higher flash points and lower health hazards compared to traditional petroleum-based solvents.²

Stepan Agricultural Solutions is dedicated to providing innovative and sustainable solutions to help formulators address their environmental concerns and are actively seeking to cultivate strategic partnerships based on creative problem solving and customized solutions.

Stepan Agricultural Solutions offers a broad portfolio of green solvents for use in solvent-based agricultural formulations. Each product offers different characteristics to meet different formulation needs, whether they be high-pesticide solubility, low VOC or low irritation, among others. These solvents can also make robust emulsions when optimized with Stepan Company’s emulsifiers.

Below are several products from Stepan Agricultural Solutions' robust portfolio that help formulators address sustainability concerns:

• Dimethyl Amides/Specialty Dimethyl Amides

• Vegetable Oil Methyl Esters

• Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride

HALLCOMID^® M-10 and HALLCOMID^® M-8-10 are a unique class of di-substituted amides with low viscosity and vapour pressure, while having high boiling point, heat, and hydrolysis stability. They are also stable through freeze and thaw cycling. These products have excellent solubility in organic solvents and have EPA* and REACH^ registrations for use in pesticide formulations. These products are suitable for use in emulsifiable concentrates (EC), oil in water emulsions (EW), microemulsions (ME), ready-to-use (RTU) and suspoemulsions (SE) applications.

Stepan Agricultural Solutions also offers a range of specialty dimethyl amide products that are bio-based and readily biodegradable. They are known to have better skin and eye irritation profiles based on FIFRA** and GHS*** classification.

HALLCOMID^® 1025 is a unique, unsaturated di-substituted amide derived from renewable sourcing, is unsaturated and manufactured using Nobel Prize-winning metathesis technology. HALLCOMID^® 1025 exhibits excellent solvency, low pour point, and heat and hydrolytic stability, while HALLCOMID^® 1225 has an 80:20 trans:cis ratio of isomers. These products are used in a wide variety of agricultural applications such as EC, ME and EW. See Tables 1 to 3 for formulation guides using Stepan’s HALLCOMID Series.

Table 1. Prothioconazole 480 g/L in EC application

Table 2. Propanil 480 g/L in EC application

Table 3. Bifenthrin 150 g/L in EW application

¹Formulaction, (2020)   
²Globenewswire, (2019)
*EPA = United States Environmental Protection Agency  
**FIFRA = Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act   
***GHS = Globally Harmonized System
^REACH = Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals under European Union Regulation

Stepan Agricultural Solutions offers a wide range of vegetable oil-based methyl esters. These products are bio-based and are approved for use as inert ingredients under U.S. EPA 40 CFR 180.910 and are REACH registered. These methyl esters exhibit excellent freeze / thaw stability and are suitable for use as either solvents or co-solvents, crop oils or carrier oils in agricultural applications such as EC, EW, ME, RTU and SE.

STEPAN^® C-25, STEPAN^® C-42 and STEPAN^® C-65 are methyl caprylate/caprate methyl ester blends of fatty acids of various chain lengths that are naturally derived from coconut oil. STEPOSOL^® ME is a methyl oleate/linoleate methyl ester that is naturally derived from soybean oil. STEPOSOL^® ROE-W is a canola oil-derived methyl ester particularly ideal for applications where a lower pour point is desired. See Table 4 for Stepan’s methyl esters formulation guide in an oil dispersion application.

Table 4. Penoxsulam 50 g/L in oil dispersion application

STEPAN^® 108 is a caprylic/capric triglyceride made using glycerine from vegetable oil sources and medium-chain fatty acids from coconut and/or palm kernel oil. It is virtually colorless and is ideal for low concentration, milder formulations. STEPAN^® 108 is also a readily biodegradable, water-insoluble specialty solvent that is approved for use as an inert ingredient under U.S. EPA 40 CFR 180.910 and REACH. It can be used in a variety of agricultural applications such as EC, EW, RTU, SE and OD. Below is a formulation guide using STEPAN^® 108 in an oil dispersion application.

Table 5. Nicosulfuron 80 g/L in oil dispersion application

Table 6. Typical characteristics of Stepan Agricultural Solutions' green solvent product

*RVOC = Reportable Volatile Organic Compound as defined by U.S. California Air Resources Board Attachment B.

Stepan Agricultural Solutions recognizes the need to meet these ever-changing market needs and is continuously seeking new and innovative ideas to deliver solutions effectively. Stepan’s in-house formulation expertise works to provide a value-added service to help solve the most difficult challenges, especially to combat the current and future environmental concerns. “Stepan is committed to a safe and sustainable agriculture, customers’ growth and to farmers worldwide who face ever-increasing challenges that require new innovations,” says Jason Keiper, Stepan Company Chief Technology and Sustainability Officer.

Stepan Agricultural Solutions is here to help you grow through science.

If you are interested in cooperation with Stepan Company, please contact:

Jason Chen | Stepan Company
Email: JYChen@stepan.com
Tel: +65 81828267
WeChat ID: wxid_p38pvaj37i0x12
WeChat Name: Stepan Jason Chen

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