Pesticide EC will take the environmentally friendly road in the future

On September 24, a seminar on the development of environmentally friendly pesticide EC was organized by the China Pesticide Industry Association. The seminar will focus on the development of pesticide emulsions, the substitution of high-toxicity aromatic solvent organic solvents such as benzene, toluene, and xylene in pesticides, the development and application prospects of new organic solvents in environment-friendly pesticides and the limit of harmful solvents in pesticides. Consultation Drafts etc. A series of in-depth discussion on the EC issue has been made, which points out the direction for the future development of EC.

According to Gu Baogen, deputy director of the Ministry of Agriculture's Institute of Pesticide Testing, at present, 9,201 kinds of emulsifiable concentrates are registered in China. According to 2,000 pesticide companies, there are four or five kinds of emulsifiable concentrates for each company, and the proportion of emulsifiable concentrate is very high. . For a long time, the EC formulation has become one of the main dosage forms of pesticides due to its advantages such as simple production process, stable formulation, convenient use and good efficacy. Even in European and American countries where water-based formulations are highly developed, they still have a market share of more than 25%. In China, the EC dosage forms still account for 50% of the current dosage of pesticide preparations, about 1 million tons, and use about 300,000 to 400,000 tons of solvents per year. Most of them are benzene, toluene and xylene light aromatic solvents. The various health and environmental issues caused by the heavy use of light aromatic solvents have attracted much attention. China is also looking for alternatives to light aromatic solvents.

Gu Baogen stated that with the changes in policies and markets, China's environmentally friendly dosage forms have increased significantly from 2008 to 2010, with more than 3,000 environmentally friendly dosage forms including water, water emulsions, water dispersible granules, and microcapsule suspensions. A total of 1982-2007 sums. Due to solvents such as xylene in pesticide emulsions, they can pollute the environment and endanger health. Advocate companies to limit the use of harmful solvents such as xylene, the use of more environmentally friendly mineral oil, natural solvents turpentine, biodiesel, etc. as a solvent. However, Luo Haizhang, chairman of the China Pesticide Industry Association, said that in view of China's national conditions, while reducing the production of highly toxic solvent emulsifiable concentrates, it is necessary to accelerate the reform of old formulations and the development of new environmentally friendly pesticide emulsion formulations.

Chen Fuliang, a researcher at the Institute of Plant Protection of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, believes that due to the safety of highly toxic solvents and additives, China's pesticide EC should find environmentally-friendly alternatives to replace aromatic hydrocarbon volatile solvents such as xylene. The substitution work should start from the following three aspects: the development of environmentally friendly EC, the development of high-emulsion EC, and the development of aqueous-based preparations.

Zhang Zongxi, functional additive research and development center of Sinochem Chemical Science and Technology Research Institute, said that there are currently plant-derived green solvents (vegetable oils and modified vegetable oils, epoxidized soybean oil, pine oil, jatropha oil, biodiesel, etc.), and petroleum Cracked benzene alternative solvents (solvent oil, mineral oil, liquid paraffin oil, kerosene, etc.), coal tar cracking products (naphtha, etc.) and synthetic green solvent products (by-product basis for the production of dimethyl carbonate, natural gas oil production Solvents such as oil) can be used as substitutes for benzene solvents for solvents such as emulsifiable concentrates, water emulsions, and microemulsions. In combination with the characteristics of new emulsions, they have developed a twin-pyrrolidone solubilizer to improve the solubility of solvents and the stability of emulsifiable concentrates. In addition, most of the active ingredients of EC products can be developed into other water-based emulsions, suspensions, water dispersible granules and other environmental protection formulations. Zhang Zongxi said that with the development of efficient, safe, environmentally friendly and economical pesticide products, the development of water-based, solid-state, granular, sustained-release, and multi-functional compound pesticide formulations is increasingly being favored by both production and users. Some new dosage forms as well as processing methods, additives and solvent products will continue to be developed and applied. The limited use of benzene solvents will certainly bring new development opportunities for pesticide formulation processing and formulation enterprises.

Wu Xuemin, Faculty of Science, China Agricultural University, said that the mineral oil solvents Solvesso 100 and Solvesso 15 methyl oleate, fatty acid methyl ester and soybean oil are used as pesticide solvents to meet the requirements of low volatility, no phytotoxicity and no toxicity, but Most pesticides have low solubility. The combination of cineole and sec-butyl acetate is a better solvent. As a kind of environment-friendly solvent, sec-butyl acetate has good solubility and toxicity to some pesticides. It can be applied in the pesticide industry. Conventional pesticide solvents have a large number of surfactants to match. The development of related surfactants based on new solvents will be the focus of future research.

Lu Zhongli from Beijing Guangyuan Yinong Chemical Co., Ltd. told reporters: Traditional dosage forms such as emulsifiable concentrates are being replaced by new types of environmental agents such as suspending agents and water-dispersible granules. The performance of these two types of environmental protection agents is also closely related to the choice of dispersants. Currently, there are three major types of dispersants used: polycarboxylate dispersants, and naphthalenesulfonate dispersants. Lignin type dispersant. Accelerating the development and application of new professional dispersants will play an important role in the development of environmentally friendly dosage forms.

Zhang Jiejun of the Department of Policies and Regulations of the Ministry of Science and Technology said: “Pesticide companies must be able to achieve better development through innovation. The relevant departments will start with three aspects to encourage corporate innovation. The first is the institutional aspect. The “Anti-Monopoly Law” was promulgated and implemented in 2008. A series of laws and regulations to improve the market system, such as the “Promotion Law for SMEs,” “Property Rights Law,” and “Partnership Enterprise Law,” have been introduced in succession, which has played a role in motivating corporate innovation through competition and market institutions. The "Science and Technology Progress Law," "Science of Science," and "Regulations on Science and Technology Awards," and other laws and regulations have been promulgated to improve the policy environment that encourages corporate innovation, while the state has substantially increased its investment in science and technology in agriculture and social development. We will increase support for science and technology-based SME innovation funds, and the country will also introduce a deduction policy for R&D fees. In the past two years, it has benefited tens of thousands of companies and saved companies billions of dollars in funds.

Yan Wei, Department of Policy and Regulation of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, believes that pesticide companies must change to an environment-friendly direction in order to obtain longer-term development potential. According to her, the formulation of the “Emission Standards for Industrial Pollutants for the Production of Heterocyclic Pesticides” is the first national standard for the discharge of water pollutants from the pesticide industry. The "Organic Phosphorus Pesticide Industrial Pollutants Emission Standards" and "Organic Phosphorus Pesticide Industry Water Pollutant Discharge Standards" and other standards are also under development.