INVESTIGATING ECO-FRIENDLY BIOCIDAL DRIFT REDUCTION ADJUVANT BY A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY ENGINEERING APPROACH

The overall goal of this project is to critically evaluate the potential of using essential oils derived fromfood system waste and byproducts as the main active ingredient for the development of next-generation eco-friendly functional drift reduction adjuvants. In particular, a systematic study based on anintegrated multidisciplinary engineering approachwill be carried out to address two major objectives, that arehow relevant physicochemical properties of the drift reduction adjuvant can be modulated by different formulations, and consequently affects: 1)the drift reduction efficiency in normal and precision agricultural delivery systems such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), 2) biological effect including fungicide and pesticide efficacy on selected organisms.