Green Chemistry Challenge: 2022 Small Business Award
Provivi
Provivi is being recognized for creating Provivi FAWTM , a greener product for controlling the fall armyworm moth—a destructive pest that feeds on corn and other vital crops. Provivi FAWTM is a pheromone produced from renewable plant oils that targets the fall armyworm, reducing the insect’s ability to mate and thereby reducing the need for traditional pesticides to eliminate this pest. Reducing reliance on traditional pesticides can, in turn, reduce human and ecological exposure to pesticides and can improve populations of beneficial insects, such as pollinators.
Summary of Technology:
The fall armyworm (FAW) is a destructive pest that feeds on more than 80 crops, including corn. To help manage this pest, Provivi created Provivi FAWTM , a pheromone product that targets the fall armyworm. Provivi FAWTM consists of two pheromones that disrupt fall armyworm mating by confusing male fall armyworm moths, greatly reducing the next generation of larvae and thereby increasing crop yield and reducing the need for conventional insecticide applications which may harm beneficial insects. In addition to being the first commercial pheromone product targeting the fall armyworm, Provivi FAWTM also represents an improvement in the methods used to produce this type of pheromone. Provivi developed new reaction methods that reduce the need for fossil-fuel based raw materials and solvents, using fermentation to produce key raw materials from plant materials instead of petroleum. The improvements to the synthesis result in many-fold decreases in aqueous, solid and organic waste generation and the number of reaction steps, raw materials and organic solvents needed.
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