use micronized powder sulphur in industrial and agricultural

Micronized powder sulphur of selected particle size by selective direct spray, indicated as fungicidal treatment and acaricide in dusting. spray direct, powder sulphur is an excellent element against oidium, with an inhibiting effect on mites and eriophids.

Elemental sulphur is an essential ingredient in a number of industrial applications including in crop fertilizer applications, ammunition manufacture, and rubber vulcanization, to name a few.

One of the problems in the prior art with the use of particulate sulphur in fertilizer applications is that when applied in the form of large particles greater than 100 micron size, elemental sulphur is very slow in reaching the needy roots of plants to pass on the required nutrients. This is because sulphur, in its original elemental form, is insoluble in water and hence cannot be absorbed by the roots of plants. However, bacteria in the soil feed on elemental sulphur and convert it to water soluble sulphate which is subsequently readily absorbed by plant roots.

The problem with direct application of water soluble sulphate fertilizers is that the method suffers from over dissolution, uncontrolled release and leaching during incessant precipitation leading to poor returns on farm input investment. However, with smaller sized particulate sulphur, at a particle size less than about 30 (<30) microns, absorption and conversion of particulate sulphur is optimal and much more effective. When applied to plants, finely divided micronized sulphur can provide the plants with nutrients in the same season of application—as such micronized sulphur (<30 microns) has tremendous value and application in the fertilizer industry. On this basis, if there were a practical or effective means of producing large quantities of micronized sulphur particles this would be of great use in the fertilizer industry.

There is also application for the use of micronized sulphur in ammunition manufacturing, since finely divided sulphur particles would combust with greater efficiency and effectiveness. Use of a consistent finely sized micronized sulphur particle in ammunition manufacture would, it is believed, result in the manufacture of a higher quality and more consistent ammunition.

The automobile and aviation tire manufacturing industry also use large quantities of fine sulphur powder for vulcanization of rubber. The reaction between sulphur and rubber results in very hard and durable rubber that can be maintained over a comparatively wide range of temperature. Thus, the finer the sulphur powder the better would be the reaction with rubber and the higher would be the quality of tire produced. In other applications, the paint industry also uses very fine sulphur powder as a color blend. Micronized sulphur is widely used as a fungicide, insecticide and pesticide, and also has medicinal uses for treating skin ailments in humans.