Author(s): Biwek Gairhe and Ramdas Kanissery
Carbon dioxide (CO2) pressurized sprayers continue to be an essential piece of spray application equipment for crop protection in many countries. In spite of several advantages of using CO2 sprayers for applying pesticides and foliar nutrition, concerns regarding the longevity of CO2 gas cylinders and the effort required to refill the tanks have become a setback for these sprayers in field conditions. This study evaluated the possibility of using liquid CO2 for pressurizing a spray system for a longer duration spray without compromising the spray quality. Spray deposit distribution tests on water sensitive papers demonstrated that spray coverage, number of spray droplets, and volume of spray droplets produced by liquid CO2 as the spray pressurizing agent are comparable to the conventional method of spraying using gas CO2. The results from this study suggest liquid CO2 is a good option as a pressurizing agent for attaining longer spray duration when applying pesticides using CO2 pressurized sprayer systems.
