Surfactants agriculture

The greatest amount of surfactant consumption is in packaged soaps and detergents for household and industrial use. The remainder is used in processing textiles and leather, in ore flotation and oil-drilling operations, and in the manufacture of agricultural sprays, cosmetics, elastomers, food, lubricants, paint, pharmaceuticals, and a host of other products. 

Applications. These materials are stiU in developmental infancy. Current production is limited to one commercial process in Europe and a demonstration-scale process in North America. The lignins produced in these processes have potential appHcation in wood adhesives, as flame retardants (qv), as slow-release agents for agricultural and pharmaceutical products, as surfactants (qv), as antioxidants (qv), as asphalt extenders, and as a raw material source for lignin-derived chemicals. 

Specialty sulfonic acid-based surfactants make up a rather large portion of surfactant production in the United States. Approximately 136,000 metric tons of specialty sulfonic acid-based surfactants were produced in 1992, which included alpha-olefin sulfonates, sulfobetaines, sulfosuccinates, and alkyl diphenyl ether disulfonates (64). These materials found use in the areas of household cleaning products, cosmetics (qv), toiletries, emulsion polymerization, and agricultural chemical manufacture. 

Microelectronic circuits for communications. Controlled permeability films for drug delivery systems. Protein-specific sensors for the monitoring of biochemical processes. Catalysts for the production of fuels and chemicals. Optical coatings for window glass. Electrodes for batteries and fuel cells. Corrosion-resistant coatings for the protection of metals and ceramics. Surface active agents, or surfactants, for use in tertiary oil recovery and the production of polymers, paper, textiles, agricultural chemicals, and cement. 

Alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs) are nonionic surfactants that are used in the manufacturing of plastics, agricultural chemicals, cosmetics, herbicides, and industrial detergent formulations. Alkylphenols such as nonylphenol (NP) are the products of... 

ICI Surfactants - Polymer Additives Group, Antifog Agents for Agricultural and Food Packaging Films. Brochure 90-5E (1998). 

Kay, K. (1970) Pesticides and associated health factors in agricultural environments effects on mixed-function oxiding enzyme metabolism, pulmonary surfactant and immunological reactions, in Pesticides Symposia, R. Dichmann (Ed.), Halos Co., Miami, FL. 

Used industrially in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, textile chemicals, adhesives, binders, petroleum refining chemicals, fuels, lubricants, coating resins, varnishes, polymerizations, lacquers, agricultural chemicals, cosmetics, ion exchange resins, photographic chemicals, surfactants used in the paper industry and as a flocculation aid. 

Consequently, Europe has historically been a hotspot of environmental pressures because of the contamination caused by agricultural, municipal, and industrial activities and high population densities [5, 6], Such contamination has led to poor water quality in many European river basins [7-12], In addition, this pollution can cause the accumulation in river sediments of toxic compounds such as pesticides [13], surfactants [14], and alkyl polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) [15], These can in turn act as a source to biota [16] and as a potential risk for entire ecosystems [17] if the compounds bioaccumulate, and thereby enter the food chain [18],... 

Penner, D. Burow, R. Roggenbuck, F. C. Use of Organosilicone Surfactants as Agricultural Adjuvants. In Silicone Surfactants Hill, R. M., Ed. Surfactant Science Series Dekker New York, 1999 Vol. 86, Chapter 9, pp 241-258. 

AEs have found application in all kinds of domestic and institutional detergents, and cleaning agents. Their low foaming characteristics, better electrolyte compatibility and degreasing capacity relative to anionic surfactants make them especially attractive for use in I I products [18]. Furthermore, they are applied in cosmetics, agriculture, and in the textile, paper and oil industries. They have become increasingly important in more recent years, due to efforts to replace APEO. 

The total world consumption of surfactants as agricultural adjuvants was estimated to be 60,000 t in 1993 [10], and this figure is expected to continue to increase as more concerted efforts are made to reduce the amounts of crop protection chemicals used. Indeed, whilst figures in 1995 showed the worldwide adjuvant market valued at only 3% that of the corresponding agrochemicals, the increase in use per annum was 5% as compared with 1.5% per annum for the agrochemicals [9]. 

As shown in Table 5.5.1,15% of the silicone surfactants annually used were disposed of via wastewater treatment plants [6], but no studies have addressed their fate or persistence in this environmental compartment. Due to the hydrolytic instability and tendency for sorption to surfaces, it is generally thought that limited persistence of the parent molecule in aqueous systems should occur. Consequently more attention has been focused on interactions with solid media such as that resulting from direct application as agricultural adjuvants, and in re-use of sludge. Increased water solubility for the degradation products of trisiloxane surfactants has, however, been observed [10,12,15], demonstrating the need to also monitor the... 

Holt and Bernstein [3] conducted a second monitoring exercise to determine LAS along with linear alkyl benzene in sludge-amended soils. Analyses of the anionic surfactant followed the previously established method [2], The agricultural lands sampled had all been surface spread with primary or anaerobically digested sludge. In seven out of nine soil samples collected from fields with sludge application in previous years, the mean LAS level was below... 

The high production volumes and widespread use of surfactants have been an environmental concern since the early 1960s. Surfactants are used in industry and agriculture and are also found in household and personal care products. Subsequently, these substances are released into the environment, directly, or after being processed in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). 

Another large class of chemicals produced starting from ethanol are ethyl-amines. When heated to 150-220 °C over a silica- or alumina-supported nickel catalyst, ethanol and ammonia react to produce ethylamine. Further reaction leads to diethylamine and triethylamine. The ethylamines find use in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals, and surfactants. 

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