Runhe: Committed to Developing Novel Organosilicon Synergist

In an interview with AgroPages, Xuyingen (General Manager of Zhejiang Runhe Materials Co., Ltd.) said, “Runhe’s objective is to become a leading international fine chemical supplier, through organosilicon processing in the midstream of the organosilicon industry chain. Our strength is based on our customer-centric business model, our consistent product quality, and our differentiated and individualized business development. Runhe is effective in business implementation, rapidly responding to the market while being innovative and adaptable.” He also shared Runhe’s development history, competitive edge and product advantage.

Xuyingen

General Manager of Zhejiang Runhe Materials

AgroPages: Please brief us about the development history of Runhe

Based in Ninghai, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, Ningbo Runhe Materials Co., Ltd. was founded in 2000 and has currently three production bases in Ningbo Runhe, Zhejiang Runhe Organosilicon and Jiujiang Runhe, as well as an import/export company and the Runhe Material Research Institute. Runhe is a listed public high-tech enterprise committed to the research and development, production, sale and application of textile chemicals and novel organosilicon materials. The company, which went public on GEM of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on November 27, 2017, was founded as a company specializing in textile chemicals, including softener agents, mostly organosilicon products. In 2007, the company established its organosilicon product business department to expand its business scale and operations. In 2010, a factory was established in the Deqing Economic Development Zone, where Zhejiang Runhe Organosilicon Materials Co., Ltd. was founded and began production in the same year. Runhe Materials has made steady progress along the way, achieving remarkable successes. Its novel materials business division in Deqing, just one of its individual business units, recorded organosilicon material sales of ￥300 million in 2020.

Runhe is one of the earliest Chinese enterprises committed to the organosilicon industry. In early 2007, during the founding of its new materials division in Deqing, the company recruited qualified staff members and gained the confidence of the organosilicon industry. Starting from scratch, the company gradually expanded its production capacity, built up its market influence and created star products, such as its agricultural organosilicon synergist, highlighting the progress made within the industry and the success of Runhe’s strategic conception.

AgroPages: Can you comment on the competitive advantage of Runhe in the agricultural organosilicon industry?

Runhe’s objective is to become a leading international fine chemical supplier, through organosilicon processing in the midstream of the organosilicon industry chain. Our strength is based on our customer-centric business model, our consistent product quality, and our differentiated and individualized business development. Runhe is effective in business implementation, rapidly responding to the market while being innovative and adaptable. We continually invest in R&D, having developed a series of organosilicon synergists, metal die casting release agents, high conductive thermal gels, thermal conductive phase change materials, organosilicon elastomers, and optical resin and addition type liquid silicone rubber products, through our independent research and development. Our products can fulfill the needs of various industry sectors, such as for high-end crop plant protection, and new energy, electronic and electrical appliances, as well as rail transit, electricity industry anticorrosion and 5G mobile communication system development, therefore, reducing the level of dependence of domestic high-end production on imports. This will encourage the restructuring of the domestic industry structure and meet the needs of more high-end customers. Today, more and more major customers are cooperating with our company, and the proportion of our large-scale customers is growing rapidly.

AgroPages: Please explain the agricultural applications and future prospects of Runhe’s organosilicon products

Runhe’s main product is our self-developed RH-208, which has super wettability and excellent permeability and rain fastness. It effectively promotes pesticide absorption, reducing pesticide use by over 30% and water use by 50%, an excellent agricultural organosilicon synergist. It is mostly utilized as a tank-mix adjuvant with wide coverage and can be used with insecticides, herbicides and plant growth regulators. Sometimes it is used in non-water-based formulations, but this is limited, due to its hydrolysis-intolerant property. Over the last two years, with the popularity of UAV spraying, the use of aerial application adjuvants has increased annually. Therefore, our company has developed aerial application-oriented adjuvants that have the features of anti-evaporation, anti-drifting, and good adhesion, wetting and permeability.

With a focus on the domestic formulation market, due to the hydrolysis intolerance of the traditional RH-208 product, we have developed acid and alkali resistant organosilicon synergists that are hydrolysis resistant, fully opening up the application of organosilicon within the pesticide industry. This will help achieve China’s goal of reducing the use of pesticides with increased efficiency, as well as reducing the use of pesticides and fertilizers, and achieving pesticide zero growth.

Today, both the upstream and downstream of the industry have turned to innovation, differentiation and diversification, which is an overall trend. Runhe is capable of supplying differentiated and diversified pesticide synergistic solutions.

AgroPages: How is the product performance of Runhe’s organosilicon adjuvants?

Obviously, RH-208 enhances the efficacy of the acaricide (insecticide) in controlling citrus spider (aphid and whitefly), being fast acting and long lasting. Its control effect is 95% or above. For controlling insects such as red spider, aphid, whitefly, thrips, tea lesser leafhopper, which are small in size, propagate rapidly and move slowly, 20% of conventional water consumption with adjuvant can be effective while being water and labor efficient, which is worth promoting and popularizing.

For weeds with high resistance, RH-208 can significantly improve the weed control effect of diclofenac and Cyhalofop on Echinochloa crusgalli. The higher the concentration of RH-208 is, the more significant the control effect is, and the water consumption can be reduced. RH-208 is very useful for pesticide-resistant crops with thicker wax coatings, such as lotus seed and taro, being effective in controlling soil insects like chive maggot and garlic maggot.

AgroPages: What precautions should be taken when using an organosilicon adjuvant?

Organosilicon adjuvants can cause the “exfoliation” of leaf epidermis cells, which reduces water retention capacity and damages cells, resulting in crop damage. The main pesticide damage symptoms include chlorosis of plant leaves, and abnormal brown deposits or halo rings on fruits, which could seriously affect the yield and quality of crops. The occurrence of organosilicon adjuvant damage is closely related to crop variety, pesticide variety, and adjuvant concentration and dose on plant leaves, as well as temperature conditions at the time of spraying. Crops with a thinner wax coating or that are wetted easily, such as cucumber and green beans, are more prone to adjuvant damage over rice, ginger and garlic, which have a thicker wax coat. Pesticide damage may occur to various extents, dependent on the difference of fruit trees. The addition of an organosilicon adjuvant to herbicides, such as carfentrazone-ethyl, nicosulfuron and fomesafen, may incur a higher risk of crop damage compared to being added to insecticides and fungicides. Nevertheless, adding an organosilicon adjuvant to insecticides and fungicides during spraying may also lead to crop damage. When spraying a pesticide that prone to cause crop damage or on crops vulnerable to phytotoxicity, the higher the concentration of organosilicon adjuvant the higher the risk of crop damage, while the bigger the dose on leaves and the higher the temperature at the time of spraying, the higher the risk of crop damage.

Attention should be paid to the following four factors when using an organosilicon adjuvant with pesticides:

• When there is no application experience, trials must be conducted for certain crops and certain chemicals before pesticides are promoted for use, to avoid irreparable crop pesticide damage.
  

• Attention needs to be paid to the concentration of an organosilicon adjuvant. Do not increase the dose at will. Generally, the concentration of organosilicon adjuvant should be lower than the concentration of conventional spraying adjuvant. Therefore, the amount of organosilicon adjuvant to be added should be lower than that of the conventional spraying adjuvant. Spray concentration should be controlled below 0.1%.

• When spraying on fruit trees, do not spray directly on fruits. Or done with cover bags on fruits.

• Do not spray pesticides with organosilicon adjuvant at temperatures exceeding 300C. Spraying in the morning or evening to avoid the hot sun is recommended.
  

The Chinese market for tank-mix organosilicon synergists is not yet a well-established one, and the available application technology is not yet mature. Therefore, promotions at this stage will lead to improper application, which may result in occasional crop damage, like in the case of mineral oil. Promotions need to be prudent, especially when being used with sensitive pesticides and risky chemicals, such as plant growth regulators, foliar fertilizers and pesticides indicating “no mixed use with surfactants.” On these occasions, trials are required and applications should only be done after safety is confirmed.

If you are interested in cooperation with Runhe, please contact:

Silicone new materials business International market

Ms. Anais Cao
Mobile: 0086 136 5666 6849
Email: Anais@chinarunhe.com

China domestic market
Contact: Mr. Huang Weili 
Mobile: 0086 180 5728 0880

Contact: Ms.Wang Shiwei
Mobile: 0086 180 5728 0868

This interview has been published in AgroPages '2021 Formulation & Adjuvant Technology' magazine published this May.

Welcome you to download this magazine to view more excellent articles. Cooperation inquiry, please contact Grace Yuan via: grace@agropages.com