Guelph crop protection firm Norac Concepts has picked up registration for Enhance, a new non-ionic spray adjuvant that it says will surpass voluntary federal standards for pest control chemistries.

The product, an 80 per cent mixture of triglyceride ethoxylate 10 POE, is meant to improve efficacy of approved pesticides ranging from Roundup and Pursuit to Ambush and Elevate.

Norac plans to market Enhance to Ontario crop producers as a “multifaceted” adjuvant to improve chemicals’ spreading, wetting and penetration properties on target plants with “no adverse effects,” the company said.

Enhance, the company said, “not only meets, but exceeds the new governmental standards as it contains no nonylphenols or nonyl phenol ethoxylates,” or NPEs.

Enhance can be used at “significantly lower” rates than adjuvants based on methylated seed oils (MSOs), crop oil concentrates (COCs) and petroleum-based surfactants, the company said.

Specifically, Norac’s Bob Chyc said in a release Wednesday that Enhance performs at rates similar to 90 per cent nonionic surfactants and at rates a quarter to half those of MSOs and COCs.

According to Norac and Guelph retail firm Engage Agro, which will market Enhance, Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) has been sending letters to registrants of products identified as containing NPEs, asking that they develop plans for to substitute out nonylphenols and NPEs.

“Substitution of NPEs in Canadian pest control products is voluntary at this time, though registrants are encouraged to replace the NPE components,” Norac said.

To that end, the company said, Enhance is based on compliance with the federal Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) on the removal of nonlylphenols and NPEs.