Scale-Up Agrochemical Formulation with Industrial Sonicators

Agrochemical formulation requires dispersing, dissolving, emulsifying, and homogenizing compounds. Sonication is an effective method for creating high-quality chemical suspensions. It allows for the high-speed production of high-load formulations and facilitates the preparation of active ingredients like nanoparticles and polymers for highly functional agrochemicals.

Ultrasonic Manufacturing of Agricultural Chemicals

The production of agrochemicals – including fertilizers (e.g., nitrogen- and phosphorus-based compounds) and crop protection agents (e.g., herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and rodenticides) – requires precise dispersion, dissolution, and emulsification of their components. Power ultrasound addresses these processing needs by generating cavitation-induced high shear forces, which ensure consistent mixing, homogenization, and blending throughout formulation.

Improve Crop Protection Products and Fertilizers with Sonication

How Crop Protection Products Benefit from Ultrasonics

• Suspension Concentrates (SCs): Milling active ingredients to sub-micron sizes to prevent settling and maximize field efficacy.
• Emulsifiable Concentrates (ECs): Producing stable, fine-mist oil-in-water emulsions to prevent phase separation.
• Wettable Powders: Deagglomerating dry powders to ensure rapid and complete wetting upon contact with water.
• Encapsulated Formulations: Uniformly dispersing polymer coatings to create controlled-release and UV-protective barriers.

How Fertilizers Benefit from Ultrasonics

• Liquid Fertilizers: Ensuring micronutrients don’t settle out (stabilizing suspensions).
• NPK Solutions: Preventing crystallization in high-concentration liquid fertilizers.
• Coated Urea: Improving the dispersion of polymers used in slow-release fertilizers.

The quality and effectiveness of agrochemicals is highly depending on the concentration, size and shape of active substances and additives as well as their interaction. This means that the dispersion, emulsion or suspension of the additives and active substances influences the expression of the desired features of a fertilizer or pesticide substantially. To produce high quality specialty chemicals such as agrochemicals, the liquid or solid particles must reliably processed: Ultrasonic particle size reduction, dispersion, emulsion and homogenization results in stable formulations and finally in high-quality chemical product.
Hielscher’s range of ultrasonic dispersers and homogenizers offers the suitable “work-horse” for your application!

Improved Agrochemical Formulations – Higher Efficiency

Agrochemical formulations typically combine one or more active ingredients with specialized additives to deliver the desired field performance. Depending on the application, these products are engineered as dispersions, emulsions, suspensions, microemulsions, or controlled-release systems. Achieving long-term stability requires precise control over the interaction forces between particles and droplets–a critical factor that directly impacts shelf life, efficacy, and regulatory compliance.
Ultrasonic processing addresses these formulation challenges by generating intense, localized shear forces through acoustic cavitation.

This technology reliably:

• Disperses solid powders uniformly into the liquid phase
• Emulsifies oils and waxes into stable, fine-mist mixtures
• Mills particles to precise sub-micron or nano-scale dimensions
• Accelerates the dissolution of salts and electrolytes
• Blends final formulations into highly homogeneous products

 
Beyond mechanical processing, power ultrasound actively supports advanced chemical transformations. It enhances reaction kinetics and enables specialized processes such as chemical synthesis, sonochemical catalysis, phase-transfer catalysis (PTC), polymerization, and the controlled synthesis or surface functionalization of nanoparticles. This versatility makes ultrasonic processing a valuable asset for both routine formulation workflows and next-generation agrochemical development.

Agrochemical ingredients processed with sonication include:

• Wettable Powders (WP)
• Water Dispersible Granules (WDG)
• Dry Flowables (DF)
• Flowables or Suspension Concentrates (SC)
• Emulsifiable Concentrates (EC)
• Soluble Liquid Concentrates (SLC)
• Water Soluble Granules (WSG)

Advantages of Ultrasonic AgroChemical Processing:

• High quality products
• Reliable ultrasonication
• Precisely controllable process conditions
• From R&D to production with Hielscher’s lab homogenizers, bench-top devices and industrial systems
• Fine chemicals manufacturing from kg to multi-ton batches
• Batch and inline processing
• Easy and safe operation
• Green, environmental-friendly technique

Ingredients and Components in Agrochemicals

Agrochemical formulations are composed of various components. The most important ingredients include the active substances (such as chlorinated hydrocarbons e.g. DDT, 2,4-D, 2,4,5-T), organophosphates e.g. parathion and malathion, carbamates e.g carbaryl and carbofuran, triazine e.g. atrazine and simazine), polymers, nano particles, electrolytes (e.g. salts of glyphosate, fomesafen, glufosinate, paraquat), surfactant liquid crystals, intermediates (e.g. 2,2-Dimethoxypropane), gel systems, carriers (e.g. hydrocarbon fluids), anionic & non-ionic surfactants, adjuvants, oils, stabilizers and emulsifiers. These components must be reliably processed to formulate an effective agricultural product that protects plants and crop from harmful pest, pathogens and desease.
Hielscher Ultrasonics’ homogenizers are established as reliable industrial mixing equipment to produce high quality chemicals.

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