Covid-19: Ineos to build hand sanitiser plants in UK/Germany; Arkema manufactures alcohol-based solution for hospitals

UK-based chemical firm Ineos says it plans to set up a UK factory in ten days to produce 1 million hand sanitisers/month to help with the European shortage. It will replicate this in Germany too. These will be produced according to World Health Organisation (WHO) specifications and be specifically designed to kill bacteria and viruses.

Ineos is Europe’s largest producer of the two key raw material needed for hospital grade hand sanitiser at its sites in Grangemouth, Scotland and in northern Germany. It produces almost 1 million tonnes of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and ethanol. The company is already running these plants flat out and have been diverting more of this product to essential medical use and will now build two new factories to make hand sanitiser from them.

The firm says it intends to produce both standard and the increasingly popular “pocket bottle” hand sanitisers and is already talking to retail outlets across Europe. Supplies to NHS hospitals will be free of charge for the period of the crisis with the public being able to purchase bottles through retailers.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Founder/Chairman of Ineos says, “It is becoming increasingly clear that hand to mouth infection is a significant cause of Coronavirus contagion and Ineos is Europe’s largest manufacturer of the core ingredient of hand sanitiser. We will build two factories in the UK and Germany in ten days to produce very substantial supplies.”

Meanwhile, elsewhere in France, in response to the COVID-19 epidemic and the health situation, materials supplier Arkema has decided to repurpose a production line in order to manufacture 20 tonnes/week of alcohol-based solution to be distributed free of charge and as a matter of urgency to hospitals in France.

In this time of health crisis, the group will be using a pilot line at its Rhône Alpes Research Centre (CRRA), near Lyon, which will be dedicated to the manufacture of an alcohol-based solution in order to help out healthcare professionals now under considerable strain.

The solution will be supplied to the French health authorities, and will be earmarked in particular for the mass restocking of public hospitals.

Accordingly, Arkema says it has been granted all necessary administrative authorisations.

(PRA)

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