Alternatives to NPE

NPE, namely Nonylphenol ethoxylate is widely used in the application of industrial & institutional (I&I) cleaning, paints, oilfield chemicals, leather, textile, and agrochemical, usually work as wetting and dispersing agent. However, the surfactant will degrade into nonylphenol, which is considered to be an endocrine disruptor, and its toxic nature on the aquatic organisms along with increasing use of its substitutes make a declining trend in the demand of NPE.

The EU, Canada, USA, etc, are the forerunners who have effectively eliminated use of NP/NPE in most industrial and product sectors.

In 2012, USA EPA published eight alternatives for NPE in all-purpose cleaners, listed in the table below.They are safer while comparable to NPE in cost and performance.

Another surfactant I find it a ideal alternative to NPE is natural phenol ethoxylate, called cashew phenol ethoxylate, made from cardanol (or cashew phenol) and ethylene oxide. The emulsification of this surfactant is good, and it has a high degree of biodegradability. Plus, cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL, cardanol derives from CNSL) is of low cost and abundantly available.

Do you have any other suggestions?

Contact person: Susan

E-mail: susan@profirst.cn

Skype: profirst-susan

Mobile/Whatsapp: +86 15902190115

Website: www.profirst.cn

SAP as "Miniature Water Reservoirs" in Soil

SAP, super absorbent polymer, first came to me as material in baby diapers and crystal mud(as I used it to make my potted plant before). With deep study, it is also a good material for agricultural use, though not a new one. So I would like to introduce this product a little bit.

What is SAP?

They are hydrophilic polymer that can absorb and retain huge amounts of aqueous solution, usually water. The load amount can be several hundred times of its own weight and it will turn into natural gel form within seconds.It sounds like popcorn come out in a minute, while with more obvious enlargement in volume.

What's the benefits of SAP?

• To increase water retention in the ground and substrate, thus reduce the frequency of watering required and the cost of irrigation
• To reduce the leaching of nutrients thus reduce the cost of fertilization
• To care about the growth of certain plants and trees, especially in dry areas
• To improve the quality of seedlings, and allow the growth of seedlings in extremely dry areas

What's the application of SAP in agriculture?

Seeds, field crops, vegetables and fruits, trees, forest, lawn and turf, horticulture...

• As soil amendments: To improve the physical properties of soil by increasing the water absorption and water holding ability.
• As part of a controlled release system: Use SAP with liquid fertilizers, water as carrier, can be applied directly around the root parts of crops, to fully improve the utility of different nutrients. 
• As seed additives, seed coating, root dip: Use SAP along with seeds hole application or ditch application to the soil around the seed to aid in seed germination and seedling establishment. 
• As irrigation additive in sport turf: The water consumption of lawn and golf course is very huge. SAP can save water and the maintenance cost.

The dosage of SAP?

• As seed coating, two ways:

SAP:seed:water=1:50:200 Add water in SAP first to make hydrogel. Then mix seed with the hydrogel evenly. Wait until a coated film formed on the seed surface. Nutrients can be added when coating. If seeds are small in diameter, soil can be added in the process to make the seed not cluster together.

SAP:seed=1:30 Soak seeds in water about three hours. Filter out the water, make no water drip on the seeds. Spread out the seeds, and mix them with SAP.

• Mix with fertilizers: Prepare SAP about 45kg/ha, mix with fertilizers.
• Soil application: Prepare SAP about 45kg/ha, spill evenly on the fields, make tillage of 20cm in depth before sowing.
• Furrow/hole application: Prepare SAP 30-45kg/ha, mix with fine dry soil according to the proportion of 1:5-1:10, evenly applied to planting ditch within 10-20 cm.
• Dipping root: Prepare SAP:water=1:200 or SAP:water:soil=1:300:60 Dip the plant into the hydrogel with mother soil, then replant it.

The widely used SAP is PAM (Polyacrylamide), Sodium polyacrylate, etc.

If you have any knowledge about SAP, please share !

Contact person: Susan

E-mail: susan@profirst.cn

Skype: profirst-susan

Mobile/Whatsapp: +86 15902190115

Website: www.profirst.cn

Find a Fast Working Defoamer for Your Tank Mix Spraying System

Another article about agro defoamer:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/silicone-antifoam-emulsion-pesticides-susan-hu

Any inquiries, please contact me as below:

Agricultural Drift Control Products To Improve Spray Pattern

When spraying pesticides or fertilizers by machine, the droplet size differs. This is related to the use of different nozzles, pressure, speed, and one point maybe overlooked, the composition of the spray solution.

Usually there are three kinds of droplets which may lead to different spray results.

• Spray particles'diameter below 150 microns: driftable droplet, if the diameter below 50 microns, the droplet is more likely to evaporate.
• Spray particles'diameter between 150-500 microns: desirable droplet,if all droplets are uniform in this size, then more consistent coverage can be provided.
• Spray particles'diameter above 500 microns: too large droplet, which is prone to bouncing or rolling off target surfaces.

Perfect spraying droplet performance is A.I. micelles evenly dispersed,droplet rightly reach the target surface(no evaporate or drift and no rebound),wetting and spreading on the leaf surface, lastly penetrating into the crop.

That is to say, to make the spraying droplet reach the target leaf is the first thing we should do!

There are variable drift control products on the market. Traditional ones are polymers like polyacryamide, polyethylene oxides, guar gum, xanthan gum, etc, which are of high molecular weight, water soluble and have relatively high viscosity.

It is obvious that the intrinsic viscosity may help produce an enhanced viscosity of the spraying solution, and tend to increase the droplet size and weight, thus decreases the quantity of driftable fines and improve the spraying application.

The phospholipid/lecithin-based chemistry is a new type of drift control product, such as LI-700 from Loveland. As the material is usually soybean derived, this kind of product is more environmental friendly than the traditional polymers. More importantly, the performance of drift control is much better.

The lecithin-based products also show outstanding results when compared to the drawbacks of polymer drift control products. The high molecular polymers tend to loose utility after undergoing mechanical stirring because of the degradation of polymer chain. And it may take a quite long time to make the polymers evenly disperse or dissolve in liquid solution, which increase the chance of spraying nozzle plug. And the polymers do nothing for the large sized droplets. In contrast, lecithin products can improve a uniform spray pattern, which really matters.

For more discussion, please feel free to contact me:

Contact person: Susan

E-mail: susan@profirst.cn

Skype: profirst-susan

Mobile/Whatsapp: +86 15902190115

Website: www.profirst.cn

Silicone Surfactants VS Non-silicone Ones

Surface tension:

The surface tension of silicone surfactant is much lower than the non-silicone ones, and this will lead to the big gap in the contact angle,generally positively related, see table as below.

Contact Angle:

Usually the contact angle is negatively related to the wetting speed and coverage diameter on the surface, see table as below.

Wetting speed and diameter:

PET is a hydrophobic surface.The good performance of silicone surfactant on such surface make it possible to have good market in agriculture.

The waxy layer of crop leaves are also hydrophobic. Genrally agrochemicals will find it hard to enter inside the leaf structure by stomatal absorption. And the wetting speed is slow, the spreading coverage is not big. The drops may slide off the leaf surface or big drop may even bounce out, thus leads to the pesticide waste and efficacy not meet the expectation.

With the help of silicone surfactant, the agrochemicals can spread on the leaf surface, then go into the small part of crops and weeds, and maximize the efficacy.

For discussion, contact me as below:

Welcome to visit Profirst Page

Dear customers and friends,

Thank you for visiting Profirst page, thank you for your attention to our Products.

The best seller products are :

PASS-- Agro silicone surfactant ,

Pro-DFM----- silicone based Deformer. etc.

If you need more information about our products , please visit our website : www.profirst.cn ,

Or contact us .

With Best Regards,

Alan

President

Shanghai Profirst Co., Ltd.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Address: No.2, Lane 1123,Kangqiao Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai 201315 , China

Tel : 0086 21 38122007                           Fax : 0086 21 38122006

Mobile/whatsapp : +86 13701791095    Skype : alanchen8866

E-mail : alan@profirst.cn ; alan@profirst.biz

Profirst Announcement :

Shanghai Profirst Co., Ltd. Hereby declare Ms. Susan to act as Manager of Agrochemical department.

This appointment will take immediate effect.  

By Alan,

President

Shanghai Profirst Co., Ltd.

April 16, 2017

This is the Photo of Ms. Susan Hu.