Latin America
1 April 2026
ICL launches Bioz Kellus
ICL has launched Bioz Kellus, a new micronutrient and biostimulant product. This innovative chelate delivers faster nutrient uptake and improves plant resilience, according to the company.
Bioz Kellus marks a shift away from traditional fertilizers, suggests ICL, by focusing on how plants use nutrients at the cellular level, as well as on how much nutrient reaches the soil or leaf.
“We are reshaping the definition of plant nutrition,” says Dr Eduardo Lopes Cancellier, ICL’s Biostimulants Agronomy Specialist. “We are moving away from the era of thinking only in kilograms of elements per hectare. Our focus is on maximising the plant’s ability to absorb and use nutrients efficiently, while supporting overall health and resilience.”
Typically, only a fraction of the nutrient content of traditional chelates is actually usable, with the remainder of no use to the plant and potentially accumulating in the environment. Bioz Kellus, in contrast, acts as a biologically active and fully biodegradable nutrient carrier. It combines peptide-based molecules with organic acids to release nutrients and trigger biostimulant effects inside the plant.
In advanced trials at the University of São Paulo’s Centre for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture, scientists were able to track the movement of micronutrients in real time used synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence, a cutting-edge technique more commonly used in physics. Results showed that Bioz Kellus is faster acting, achieving zinc absorption through leaves in just 13 hours, outperforming traditional chelates and insoluble salts.
“Faster nutrient uptake brings greater safety and efficiency to farmers. Applications are less likely to be washed by rainfall, and plants respond quicker,” comments Dr Eduardo Lopes Cancellier.
Field trials also demonstrated protective biostimulant effects. When applied alongside glyphosate, plants showed no signs of typical herbicide injury, with new leaves emerging green and healthy. In comparative trials, Bioz Kellus also achieved the highest nutrient relocation rate by activating plant physiological processes more consistently within the first 50 hours.
Laboratory tests have confirmed that Bioz Kellus biodegrades completely within 22 days, addressing concerns over the environmental persistence of chelating agents and meeting growing demand for greener agricultural inputs and products suitable for regenerative agriculture.
Bioz Kellus is already patented and commercialised in Brazil and should, says ICL, set new standards in agriculture when it comes to the safety and performance of chelated micronutrients.
