A product that uses rare earth magnets to treat sprayer fluid recently won the Thrive, Bayer Sustainable Startup Award.
MagGrow Technology builds an attachment that can be plumbed into sprayer discharge lines, which the company says reduces the amount of spray that drifts off target.
The Thrive, Bayer Sustainability Challenge aims to identify and support innovators that reduce the environmental impact of crop protection, reduce field greenhouse gas emissions and empower small-scale farmers to access sustainable agricultural solutions
MagGrow now has the opportunity to explore a proof-of-concept pilot project with Bayer.
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MagGrow chief executive officer, Gary Wickham, said the company uses a science-based approach to develop the technology.
“A lot of this stuff is our IP, and going into public publication, we can’t reveal what our secret sauce is. What I can tell you are some well-known facts that when you pass water through magnetic fields you affect things like surface tension viscosity and other parameters in the fluid,” Wickham said.
“By changing the fluid properties, we end up with the right droplet size, we end up with more of the right droplet size that are not too small to drift into the atmosphere or not too big to run off.”
The MagGrow system can be easily installed in sprayers and requires little maintenance because it has no moving parts.
Spray expert Tom Wolf is familiar with MagGrow, and he said published data on the product’s performance is needed.
“They need to show that their droplet size and or spray retention effects are better than what can be achieved with adjuvants or nozzles at a fraction of the capital cost,” said Wolf.
