Clariant dedicated to developing sustainable adjuvants

Date:05-31-2016

International Symposium on Agrochemical Adjuvants and Formulations (ISAA 2016) will be held in Monterey, California, USA, during June 13-17, 2016. Recently, AgroPages had an interview with Prof. Dr. Peter Baur from specialty chemical company Clariant, the ISAA 2016 partner, to discover Clariant’s latest development in its Crop Solutions business.

Q: Could you please briefly introduce agrochemical related business and the main product categories of Clariant in agrochemicals?

A: Crop Solutions is a small part of the Clariant overall business with a lot of potential for its numerous offerings bringing value for the industry and farmer, respectively. We are building on our already-powerful position in inerts and adjuvants, and are moving further into related areas of agricultural chemistry.

Key targets for Clariant Crop Solutions are: innovative new products for effective formulations of agrochemicals; customized tank-mix adjuvant building blocks or end products; guide formulations for complex combinations of active pesticides pre-planting treatment of seeds; novel concepts for foliar (leaf-based) liquid fertilizers and coated granules; utility products; open innovation partner for complex new developments; unique in-house profiling capabilities on all aspects of agrochemical delivery; and field performance testing for customers and farmers.

We have deep knowledge about the customers and their needs, the markets and the technologies, so this is a logical progression.

Q: Does Clariant have plans to launch new agrochemical adjuvant products?

A: ISAA is a great platform and we take the opportunity to launch not only new products from our tank mix adjuvants portfolio, but also to introduce our unique approach on tank mix adjuvant developments as a whole.

In addition, we will also showcase new additives for agrochemical formulations including a new safe water-miscible solvent and a non-miscible polar solvent and adjuvants for foliar fertilizers.

Q: What is the trend of change of agricultural adjuvants regarding application in formulation production? Could you please introduce the impact of this change to the R&D process?

A: To meet the requirements of modern, sustainable farming, crop solutions have to achieve maximum harvest yields and highest qualities with the smallest possible rational amounts of active ingredients. For example, in recent formulation developments of actives or adjuvants cheap but non-sustainable products like nonylphenolethoxylate or tallow amine ethoxylates are no more available. Replacements have to cover them functionally but on top have to come with better labels and a competitive cost-benefit balance.

Clariant’s clear target is to continue developing sustainable adjuvants for both crop protection formulations and tank mixes that are no threat for health, usable with most widely-used actives, and also well-tolerated by plants. Plus, they have to considerably enhance the performance of the active ingredients with lower dosage than conventional adjuvants. This brings value to all stakeholders.

Q: What is your vision for the agrochemical adjuvant industry?

A: Our vision is that adjuvants will play an even increasing key role when it comes to efficiency of agrochemicals, for example to reduce the potential breakout of weed resistance or increase the pest control efficiency and minimum chemical use rates of both active and adjuvant, respectively.

As an example, in the Crop Solutions Competence Center at Clariant, we have developed a series of adjuvants under the brand name of Synergen®. These adjuvants are biological enhancers of herbicides and pesticides and allow us to take advantage of the full potential of the active substance. These additives increase effectiveness by good product delivery, e.g. by minimizing the drift of fine droplets, by ensuring that plants are wetted effectively and the active substance penetrates the leaf more easily from spray deposits for a good time after application.

Q: Could you please briefly introduce the presentations Clariant is going to have in the ISAA 2016?

A: a.  In-can drift control technology for auxin herbicides – Thursday 16^th June at 11:30 – Dr. Martin Bauer 

Using in-house built-in drift control technology, new formulation concepts have been developed for various commercial herbicides. Our work shows that incorporating Clariant drift retardants in auxin formulations and under typical field conditions and tank preparations can significantly reduce the fine droplet fraction and contribute to reduce their intrinsic potential for drift.

b.  All-in-one adjuvant family: versatile microemulsions integrating water conditioner, wetting agent and oil penetration enhancers – Tuesday 14^th June at 17:30 – John Aponte

Clariant is launching a new tank mix adjuvants family of products: A big step forward for decreasing complexity and potential incompatibilities without sacrificing any reduction in efficiency.