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By David Calvert, December 2021.

As the festive period approaches, we thought it would be appropriate to look back at how formulations have influenced, or could influence, our Christmas times past present and future.

For many, celebrations include a little tipple and we are in that respect no different. To bring something special to my wife’s favourite tipple of gin and tonic last year, I bought her a small jar of “Blue Pearl Shimmer for Gin” (Figure 1) and thought I would reflect on the formulation design process for this.

So, if you were to apply iFormulate’s “Design for Formulation” approach to this product the customer promise would include phrases such as “shimmers when dispersed in gin”, “does not impact on taste of the drink” and “contains only food approved ingredients”.

The business brief and the technical brief would expand on the regulatory status and include cost targets as well as details on manufacturing process. This would subsequently lead to identifying critical quality attributes, critical material properties and critical process parameters. Incidentally, amongst the elements which should be defined are shelf life and absence of caking of the powder. I guess the manufacturers assumed their product would be used quickly, but as with many Christmas gifts, the Blue Pearl Shimmer made its way to the back of the cabinet and after one year some caking can be observed (Figure 2).

Moving on to Christmas present, perhaps we can only mention the hot topic of the day, and indeed the last 18 months, and reflect on the success of innovative formulation in playing a key role in delivering COVID vaccines into billions of arms. Formulation science and technology was used to stabilise the mRNA vaccines which are formulated in lipid nanoparticles – and we can only expect that this technology will be further developed and enhanced as the use of such vaccines to treat viral conditions is widened further.

Moving forward to Christmas future, it is time to get out our crystal ball. As with drink, food is an important part of the celebration for many and in particular I’m a big fan of the gravy formulation and I’m strongly of the opinion that family recipes for Yorkshire Pudding* (Figure 3) need to be maintained to prevent the move towards frozen Yorkshire Puddings. Perhaps a controversial wish may be to see 3-D printing develop so that we can personalise perhaps our sage and onion stuffing or even the Christmas puddings? Well, on reflection maybe we need to be careful what we wish for and that technology advances do not go too far and replace long-held traditions.

We wish all our clients and followers a very merry Christmas and let’s all hope for a better 2022. 

 

*For those unfamiliar with the finer points of British cuisine, Yorkshire Pudding isn’t actually a dessert, but a savoury accompaniment to a traditional Sunday roast dinner. See here for more detail on the formulation and key performance criteria for Yorkshire Pudding.

For those unfamiliar with the finer points of British geography, Yorkshire is a large English county and its inhabitants are famed for their generosity and modesty. 

 

By Dr Jim Bullock and Dr David Calvert. Taken from Agropages News, 7th December 2021

Outside the recent COP 26, Greta Thunberg bemoaned the lack of action and spoke of commitments being simply “Blah, Blah, Blah” and demanded that everyone took action to reduce global emissions and prevent climate change spiralling out of control. In this article, we reflect on whether these comments apply to agrochemical companies as we take a look at a selection of the sustainability reports which companies now regularly publish.

As a greater number of companies started to report on their sustainability credentials, they were often criticised for lacking consistency and for not using a standard format. When we looked at the reports from the last couple of years, it became clear that this has been addressed and many of the sustainability reports are issued according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB). The latter has some specific industry guidance for classifications created by SASB and the majority of companies in agrochemicals are in “Resource Transformation”…

To read the rest of this article go to Agropages.

By Jim Bullock, January 2021.

Over the last year, the prolonged pandemic has caused all of us to ask ourselves new questions. For instance, there has been a lot of valuable discussion and learning on various topics of science and statistics. The recent start of the coronavirus vaccination campaign has meant well-deserved praise for those scientists who have worked tirelessly to devise, test and scale-up several different vaccines. For those of you able to view it, the recent BBC documentary which focuses on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine designed by Professor Sarah Gilbert, is highly recommended.

For formulators amongst us, vaccine formulation and stability are very interesting topics. For instance, the Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna vaccines are based on novel mRNA which has to be protected in a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulation containing a number of lipids as well as salts and sucrose. Despite the use of this nanoformulation, these vaccines still have to be stored at very cold temperature. In contrast, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is based on more conventional vaccine technology that does not require protection by lipid particles and the vaccine can be stored under conventional refrigeration. Could formulations do even more for vaccines? Just today, as I was writing this article, the head of the UK’s vaccine task force called for improved coronavirus vaccine formulations (e.g. oral, buccal, nasal or patch formats) which could avoid the need for injections and cold storage.

Another topic of interest to formulators has been sanitisation. Suppliers have stepped up and provided huge quantities of various different sanitiser formulations. Those of you with an interest in sanitiser formulation, application, efficacy and regulations should take a look at “Sanitising the World”, an upcoming online event (free of charge) on these topics from the SCI’s Formulation Forum.

Those of us who wear spectacles have probably also encountered another formulation issue. When worn together with a face covering, our specs can become severely fogged as exhaled water vapour condenses on cold lenses. While this might seem like a “first world problem” in comparison to some other coronavirus challenges, anything that makes it more likely for people to wear face coverings properly has to be a good thing. And masks do help to reduce the risk of coronavirus transmission as Dr Josh Robinson from the University of Bristol pointed out recently in another Formulation Forum event.

Faced with this foggy problem myself, my first move was to try out (using an old pair of specs) the trusty anti-fog spray that I normally use for my swimming goggles (swimming being a distant memory at the moment). A field trial on my weekly supermarket trip was successful. I shouldn’t have been surprised; the anti-fog formulation contains non-ionic surfactants which act to reduce the surface tension of water droplets forming on the lens. This causes droplets to coalesce, spread and form a thin transparent film instead of allowing condensed droplets – which would scatter light – to remain.

Emboldened by this, I tried out the spray on my new glasses. This time however, the spray totally failed to wet the lenses and dried as a patchy mess. Needless to say, this treatment failed to prevent fogging. The reason: my new specs have an anti-reflection coating on them. These coatings are typically made of an inorganic material such as magnesium fluoride which is highly hydrophobic and therefore conventional surfactants aren’t up to the job of wetting the lens surface. Luckily my esteemed colleague, David Calvert came to my rescue and recommended an alternative product which works successfully on anti-reflection lenses. On further investigation, I discovered that this formulation contained tetrafluoropropanol and perfluoroopolymethylisopropyl ether, both of which are much more effective at wetting highly hydrophobic surfaces than conventional surfactants.

So, what conclusions can we draw from this? Well for the formulator – make sure you know and understand the surfaces you are working with and the limitations of your surfactants. And for everyone – wear a mask!

November 2020

From IHS Market Agribusiness

IHS Markit’s Crop Science Formulations 2020 is concerned with the formulation of crop protection products, in particular the features of the commercially important formulation types in the market. We also examine the products and companies active in formulation in this market and review the latest technological developments via the available patent and academic literature.

To learn more about crop formulations and technological developments take a look at our short video presentation below.

For further details of the IHS Markit Special Report Crop Science Formulations 2020 have a look here.

By Dr Jim Bullock. Taken from the June 2020 edition of Outlooks on Pest Management.

Whether it is a synthetic or a biological material, the journey of an active ingredient (AI) from manufacture to its target site is a perilous one. Along the way there are numerous opportunities for the AI to be degraded, destroyed or removed.

Following production of the AI, it may be vulnerable to chemical and thermal instability. Again, during formulation and on storage after manufacture, possible physical and chemical instability will need to be considered. Compatibility of the AI and co-formulants with packaging materials will also need to be taken into
account.

During application there are further opportunities for the AI to be lost. In a spray tank there is a risk of physical instability (e.g. particle agglomeration and settling) and of incompatibilities with other products added to the tank such as adjuvants and other AIs.

Once sprayed, the droplets may drift and miss the target area or, even if they reach the leaf, not adhere there. Then, it may not persist on the leaf (or pest) surface or (in the case of systemic AIs) be taken up by the target. Finally, even once taken up by the target, there can be further chemical incompatibilities which degrade the AI.

Many of these problems can be tackled by good use of formulation during product development.

To read the rest of this article go to Outlooks on Pest Management (Jun 2020).

June 2020

From IHS Market Agribusiness

There is little doubt that the market for biocontrol products in agriculture has increased dramatically over the last few years and will continue to do so over the foreseeable future. The biggest growth rates are expected in Latin America, mainly due to the entrance of biocontrol products into row crops and cereals in Brazil.

It is estimated that global sales of biocontrol products increased from just US$ 0.1 billion in 1993 to around US$ 3 billion in 2016, with a projection of sales of over US$ 4 billion in 2020. Average growth of around 10% a year is seen to 2025. This compares with a total global pesticide market now worth $59 billion.

Listen to the webcast below to gain insight into this rapidly-growing sector and understand the factors influencing bioformulations going forward.

For further details of the IHS Markit Special Report “Bioformulations 2020” have a look here.

By Dr David Calvert – taken from the Agropages ‘2020 Formulation & Adjuvant Technology ‘ magazine published in May 2020.

There can be little doubt that in all markets, not just agrochemicals, there is a drive to more sustainable and environmentally-friendly products.

Delivering products with these claims has been hampered by a number of different factors. Whilst the definitions of sustainability in particular has been helped by the publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, there remains a significant hurdle in all markets, namely do the new products still work, both functionally and economically?

In agrochemicals the Emulsifiable Concentrate (EC) formulation is a traditional formulation type and is in essence a very simple formulation consisting mainly of the active ingredient, a solvent and an emulsifier system which helps to provide the instant emulsification when the product is added to the spray tank. The manufacture of EC formulations is also very simple with little specialised equipment required…

To read the rest of this article go to Agropages.

To download the full Agropages magazine go here.