Farewell to Microplastics: Global Actions from Key Players for Sustainable Seed Treatment Solutions

Date:12-30-2024

Editor's Note: A major challenge that is affecting the seed treatment industry is the use of microplastic products. The European Union is banning microplastics in crop protection products (and pharmaceuticals and cosmetics) with a deadline for all products marketed in the EU to be free of microplastics within five to eight years. Among Agricultural activities, which accounts for about 10% of the total microplastic release, the seed coatings are directly concerned as they form a solid polymeric film at the surface of the seeds.

A critical factor in the success of seed coating is the binder, which promotes the adherence of active ingredients to the seed surface. Accuracy in selecting components is essential to ensure the proper adherence under mechanical stress, preventing dust-off release, and maintaining abrasion performance without compromising flowability and germination.

However, majority of film-formers currently employed are microplastics, which raises concerns regarding their environmental impact. The persistent nature of microplastics in the environment and their potential to accumulate in soil and water ecosystems highlight the crucial need for better alternatives. Additionally, as seed treatment formulations incorporate multiple active ingredients, there is limited space available for additional components. This necessitates the use of efficient and multifunctional additives to maintain formulation stability and efficacy.

In response to these issues, some key players around the world launched a series of microplastic-free solutions aimed at reducing environmental pollution, enhancing the efficiency and safety of seed treatments, while also meeting the EU microplastic regulation requirements.

Battelle

Battelle works with their clients by offering customized seed treatment recipes including recommendations of suitable seed binders and pigment dispersions. In the initial stages of formulation development, concentrations of coformulants are carefully considered to comply with target geographic region tolerance levels. At the early stages of formulation development, Battelle’s formulation experts have a working relationship with Battelle’s regulatory teams in EMEA, Latam and the U.S., to address any concerns such as registered Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) concentrations for active ingredients for the EU or overcoming application concerns by conducting risk assessments using different models such as the Seedtropex model and offering mitigations. The formulation process also includes storage stability studies of the most feasible formulations to measure the physico-chemical robustness of new seed treatment recipes over time. Battelle’s formulation experts also work closely with analytical chemists to measure the amounts of active on the seed surface or in dust-off collected from treated seeds. For all seed formulations, germination testing can be conducted in-house under various temperature, humidity and UV conditions. After initial greenhouse studies are conducted, the formulation team can adjust recipes to improve bioefficacy and or resistance to environmental stresses. This multidisciplinary formulation development process allows for the production of sustainable and safe seed treatment formulations.  

 

Battelle’s formulation department has experience with several different seed treatment technologies including capsule suspension for seed treatment (CF), emulsions for seed treatment (ES), microemulsion for seed treatment (ME) and soluble concentrate solutions for seed treatment (LS). Water-based concentrated formulations - flowable concentrates for seed treatments (FS) are a common conventional type of seed treatment. FS technologies are often safer to handle because they are water-based with no dust production. Flowable concentrates can be designed to give good adhesion on the seed, low dust-off and fewer issues during germination.    

Biological seed treatments are commonly formulated as water-dispersible powders (WS) with coformulants carefully selected to provide good viability of the microbe over a range of environmental conditions.

    

Battelle conducts its own internal R&D to gain knowledge to better support our clients as well as to generate proprietary technology that can be offered commercially.

Syensqo

Syensqo is able to offer microplastic-free products, in line with their commitments on sustainability, without compromising the on-seed performances (good adherence of components of the coating on the seed, the reduction of dust emission, a better resistance to abrasion …).

Below table shows Syensqo's range of microplastic-free seed coatings, all bearing the motto "Zero Microplastic, Zero Compromise".

A new microplastic-free solution for the challenging crop oilseed rape: an even more performant seed coating with Peridiam^® Quality 2001.Peridiam^® Quality 2001 offers superior performances as a seed coating for oilseed rape application with remarkable dust reduction performances and a nice and uniform coverage of the treated seeds. It constitutes an excellent choice for the application with new seed-applied biological treatments that will become more popular in the coming years. 

Borregaard

″Borregaard can offer solutions compatible with seed protection and seed enhancement formulations. These products meet the regulatory requirements and are compatible with innovative seed technology developments.

Our offering for seed coatings includes microplastic-free sustainable rheology additives, film formers, and bio-based binders/dispersants. These include products which show a high tolerance to the demanding conditions typically seen in a conventional agricultural formulation including synthetics and biologicals.

Borregaard’s products can be used with fungicides, insecticides, plant growth regulators, biostimulants and fertilizers in both dry, powder formulations and in liquid formulations such as flowable concentrates (FS), emulsions (EW) and capsule suspension (CS).

Our technical team is available to discuss the benefits of Borregaard’s products such as Exilva, as well as Borregaard’s solutions based on Lignin Biopolymers.″ Said Rebecca Blell,Technical Applications Manager for Exilva in Agri at Borregaard.

One Borregaard product for use in seed coating technologies is Exilva. Exilva is a biodegradable and biobased rheology additive and suspending aid with excellent film forming properties. It consists of cellulose fibrils and water; chemical composition is cellulose and water. It can be added to the seed protection formulations and to the seed enhancement, biostimulants and nutrition/fertilizer formulations. Due to its robustness, its high salt tolerance, and its excellent chemical and biological compatibility, it allows formulating with high ionic strength molecules and combinations of multiple chemistries, multiple actives (biologicals and synthetic), fertilizers and nutrients.

Exilva can structure and stabilize liquid formulations such as Flowable concentrates (FS) and seed coat liquids. Its extreme shear thinning behavior makes liquid formulations prepared with Exilva highly shear thinning, with high viscosity at rest and low viscosity at high shear. This imparts excellent anti-settling and suspending power in formulations leading to good stability over time while maintaining good flow properties. Due to its film forming feature, Exilva can also act as a co-binder reducing dusting of seed coatings without harming the germination of the seeds. It has even shown some positive trends on the germination speed in some of the seed coatings tested.

Exilva is sustainable cellulose, EPA inert, REACH exempt, microplastic free and very recently certified OMRI, compliant for Organic Farming. It is safe for the user, the seed and the environment. Exilva has been a commercially and globally available product since 2016.

Croda

Agrochemical formulations are becoming increasingly complex, incorporating features such as multiple active ingredients and higher loading levels, requiring more versatile components to address various challenges encountered in development. Atlox 4917, a well-established technology launched by Croda, a few years ago, may serve as an excellent alternative for these situations, as it has been shown to be suitable not only as an aqueous dispersant but also as a binder for seed treatment and a promising alternative to reduce or eliminate the use of block copolymer.  Additionally, Atlox 4917 falls outside the scope of EU microplastic legislation due to its water solubility, contributing to sustainable development.

Evonik

Evonik’s BREAK-THRU^® products can provide sustainable solutions to challenges in seed treatment. The biocompatible BREAK-THRU^® S 301 and BREAK-THRU^® SP 133 improve the performance of existing chemical and also microbial based seed treatment products. The innovative multifunctional carrier fluid BREAK-THRU^® BP 787 provides enhanced shelf life of microbial products in seed treatment formulations and once applied on the seed. In addition together with silica it provides binder properties with excellent dust-off values. Taken together BREAK-THRU^® products will expand the use of biological actives in seed treatment and offer sustainable binder solutions.

Ajinomoto AgroSolutions

Polina Podobed, Lead Innovative Projects at Ajinomoto AgroSolutions, delivered a speech titled ″Addressing global microplastic concerns through a film forming system for sustainable seed coating solutions." at the 5th Ag Formulation & Application Technology Congress (FAT 2024) .In view of the EU’s planned ban on microplastics by 2027, Ajinomoto Agricultural Solutions has responded positively to developing microplastic-free seed coating products to replace conventional acrylic polymers to reduce environmental impact. 

In her presentation, Polina Podobed revealed how Ajinomoto could replace conventional polymers by developing biodegradable and water-soluble polymers to reduce dust, increase flowability, and improve the quality of seed coatings. She presented a specific product – the microplastic-free solution, SEP221, an innovative solution compatible with plant protection products, which is non-toxic to plants, with good stability and fluidity. It is a promising product with great potential and application prospects, which contribute to sustainable agricultural production.

Below are some microplastic-free seed coating solutions from Ajinomoto AgroSolutions

Covestro Amulix 

Covestro Amulix offers high-performance, biodegradable seed coatings made from renewable resources. 

The key factors of Amulix are outlined below: 

• High performance

The new generation of Amulix seed coatings are designed to meet high performance needs for selected crops.

 

• Renewable raw materials 

In line with circular economy principles, Amulix coatings are derived from renewable resources.

• Biodegradable 

Amulix formulations are expected to be compatible with upcoming EU microparticle regulation.

 

• Process and material use optimisation 

Amulix seed coatings are easy to apply and process. The coatings are fast drying, leading to lower required heating and energy consumption to dry to seed.

 

Amulix is a product suitable for all types of seed coating processes.

If you'd like to share your company's solutions or have any promotion demands, please contact Grace Yuan: grace@agropages.com