INDEX

Sr.No. DESCRIPTION PAGE NO.

[1]
 INTRODUCTION
Pesticides are defined as the substance or mixture of substances used to prevent, destroy,
repel, attract, sterilise, mitigate any insects. Generally pesticides are used in three sectors viz.
agriculture, public health and consumer use. The consumption of pesticide in India is about
600 gins / hectare, where as that of developed counties is touching 3000 gins / hectare.
There are about 150 industrial units manufacturing pesticides (technical) and About 500
industrial units engaged in formulations in the country.
There is a wide range of pesticides found used in non-agriculture situations such as
industries, public health and for a number of purposes in the home. Domestic use of
pesticides is mainly as fly killer, ant killer, repellants, rodenticides and fungicides etc. By and
large industrial use of pesticide is of vital importance in the industries such as wood and
carpet, wood preservation etc.
Pesticide commonly used in the agriculture can be grouped as-
• Insecticides — It control the insects that damage the crops. The classes are chlorinated
hydrocarbons, organophosphates, carbamates. They are used on lawns, vegetables, grapes,
tobacco, forest trees etc.
• Organic fungicides and bactericides- They control plant molds & other diseases. Their
classes are dicarboximides,dithiocarbamates,synthetic fungicides. Fungicides protects plants
from fungal growth. They are used on grain, vegetables, grapes etc.
• Organic herbicides- Herbicides are used to control the weeds which compete with crop
plants with water, nutrients, space & sunlight. Their classes are phenoxyaliphathic
acid,nitroanilines,aryaliphatic acid. They used on the grapes, fruit trees, sugar beets, beans,
rice etc.
• Pesticide Production in India-
India is the largest producer of pesticides in Asia and ranks twelfth in the world for the use of
pesticides.
Pesticide is manufactured as technical grade products and consumable pesticides are then
formulated .The installed capacity of technical grade pesticide was 1,45,800 tonnes during
March 2005, and the production in the financial year 200.5 was 94,000 tonnes.

YEAR PRODUCTION TONNES/ YEAR

2001-02 81800
2002-03 69600
2003-04 84800
2004-05 94000

[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
 Formulating Industry

[6]
PROCESS DESCRIPTION-
The pesticide are produced in two stages the manufacture of pesticide and the formulation of
the final product. Most of the pesticide process are batch process, the remaining are
continuous processes.

• Raw material-
The raw material. used in the production of pesticide might include a large number of organic
or inorganic compounds. There are various types of raw material or chemicals used for the
different pesticide manufacturing such as herbicide, insecticide, fungicides etc. For ex. In the
manufacturing process of malathion the raw materials used are DDPA (dimethyl-dithio
phosphoric acid) and DEM (diethyl maleate). For DDT chlorine &ethanol, chlorobenzene are
used as a raw materials.
• Reactor system-In this reactor system the chemical reactions, chemical process is takes
place in the presence of chemicals. There are various types of unit processes such as
oxidation, nitration, condensation etc.
• Fractionation system- Fractionation is a separation process in which a certain quantity of a
mixture (solid, liquid, pin a number of smaller quantities (fractions) in which the composition
changes. The recovery of certain chemicals can be done in this process.
• Dryer-Drying is a mass transfer process consisting of the removal of water or another
solvent by evaporation from a solid, semi-solid or liquid. This process is often used as a fin.
production step before selling or packaging products.
• Scrubbers-
The identified pithy pollutants from the pesticide process / operation can be efficiently
removed using suitable scrubbing liquor in a mass transfer device. The liquor and gas can
contact each other while both are flowing in the same direction (co-current flow), in opposite
directions (counter current flow), or while are flows perpendicular to the other (cross flow).
The scrubbing liquor used for the removal of gaseous pollutants can be by-product, in the
form of slurry or a chemical solution. Scrubbing can be carried out in spray columns, packed
bed columns, plate columns, floating bed scrubbers and liquid jet scrubber or venturi
scrubbers. The wastewater generated from the scrubbing action is further goes to wastewater
treatment plant.
• Packaging-
The technical grade pesticide shall be packed in dry and clean containers. There are various
types of drums are used for packaging of pesticides. The types are depend on the pesticide
which is packed. The mild steel drums, HDPE drums, aluminium clad containers are used for
liquid pesticide packaging. The packing drums are used are capacity of 10, 25, 50,100,200
tits. The drum should be temperproof. The closer should be provided so for not allowing
leaking the drum. The drums should be sturdy.

[7]
• Formulating unit/ industry -After a pesticide is manufactured in its relatively pure form (the
technical grade material) the next step is formulation — processing a pesticide compound
into liquids, granules, dusts, and powders to improve its properties of storage, handling,
application, effectiveness, or safety. The technical grade material may be formulated by its
manufacturer or sold to a formulator/ packager. The most important unit operations involved
in formulation are dry mixing and grinding of solids, dissolving solids, and blending.
Formulation systems are virtually all batch-mixing operations.

• Active ingredient-These are the active ingredient which is the technical form of pesticide.
• Mill-
In this unit the grinding of pesticides is done. Some of the pesticides are in solid state which
can cause problem in the mixing with the solvents in mixing tank. So for proper mixing the
grinding is done before it.
• Mixing tank-
Liquid formulating-
Liquid formulations contain mixtures of several raw materials, including pesticide active
ingredients, inert ingredients, and a base solvent, and may also contain emulsifiers or
surfactants. The solvent may be water or an organic chemical, such as isopropyl alcohol or
petroleum distillate. In some cases, the formulation is an emulsion and contains both water
and an organic solvent. Solid materials, such as powders or granules, may also be used as part
of a liquid formulation by being dissolved or emulsified in the solvent to form a liquid or
suspension. The formulated product may be in a concentrated form requiring dilution before
application, or may be ready to apply.
'Typical liquid formulating lines consist of storage tanks or containers to hold active and inert
raw materials, and a mixing tank for formulating the pesticide product. A storage tank may
also be used on the formulating line to hold the formulated pesticide product, prior to a
packaging step. These raw materials are either piped to the formulation vessel from bulk
storage tanks, or added directly to the vessel from drums, bags. 'Typically, water or the base
solvent is added to the formulation vessel in bulk quantities. The formulating line may also
include piping and pumps for moving the raw Material from the storage tanks to the mixing
tank, and for moving formulated pesticide product to the packaging line. Other items that
may be part of the line are premixing tanks, stirrers, heaters, bottle washers, and air pollution
control equipment. Some lines may also contain refrigeration units for formulation, storage
units and other equipment.
Dry formulation-Dry formulations contain active and inert ingredients; the final product may
be in many different forms, such as powders, dusts, granules, blocks, solid objects
impregnated with pesticide, pesticides formed into a solid shape or microencapsulated dusts
or granules. They are formulated in various ways, including mixing powdered or granular
actives with dry inert carriers, spraying or mixing a liquid active ingredient onto a dry carrier,
soaking or using pressure and heat to force active ingredients into a solid matrix, mixing

[8]
active ingredients with a monomer and allowing the mixture to polymerize into a solid, and
drying or hardening an active ingredient solution into a solid form. These dry pesticide
products may be designed for application in solid form or to be dissolved or emulsified in
water or solvent prior to application.
Dry formulating lines typically have tanks or containers to hold the active ingredients and
inert raw materials, and may include mixing tanks, ribbon blenders, extruding equipment,
high-pressure and temperature tanks for impregnating solid with active ingredient.
Raw materials for dry pesticide products may be liquid or solid. Liquid raw materials may be
stored in drums, or bottles. Dry raw materials may be stored in silos, metal drums, fiber
drums, bags, or boxes. Liquid raw materials may be pumped, poured, or sprayed into
formulation vessels, while dry raw materials are frequently transferred to formulation
equipment by screw conveyors (consisting of a helix mounted on a shaft and turning in a
trough), through elevators, or by pouring.
• Packaging-Liquid packaging-
Many liquid formulations are packaged by simply transferring the final product into
containers. Small quantities of product are often manually packaged by gravity feeding the
product directly from the formulation tank into the product container. For larger quantities,
the process is often automated. Formulated product is transferred to the packaging line
through pipes or hoses, or is received from a separate formulating facility, and placed in a
filler tank. A conveyor belt is used to carry product containers, such as jugs, bottles, cans, or
drums, through the filling unit, where nozzles dispense the appropriate volume of product.
The belt then carries the containers to a capper, which may be automated or manual, and then
to a labeling unit. Finally, the containers are packed into shipping cases.
Dry packaging-Dry formulations are also packaged by simply transferring the final product
into boxes, drums, jugs, or bags. Again, small quantities or bags are typically packaged
manually using a gravity feed to carry the product from the formulating unit into the
containers or bags. Larger quantities may be packaged on an automated line, similar to liquid
packaging lines.
.

[9]