According to the German Bioethanol Industry Association (Bundesverband der Deutschen Bioethanolwirtschaft - BDBe), there is a secure supply of ethanol as a raw material for the production of disinfectants. Special regulations issued by the authorities in recent days permit the use of technical bioethanol to make the sanitisers and disinfectants needed.
With this step, Germany is following a recent recommendation from the World Health Organization (WHO) to ease manufacturing requirements so that the chemical industry and pharmacies can expand production on site.
Capacities for the production of high-purity neutral alcohol are exhausted throughout Europe while up to now, German bioethanol has been sold mainly in the fuel sector.
Thanks to these changes, our companies can now provide bioethanol as a raw material for disinfectants in the quantities so urgently needed to protect health. This is good news for the supply of our nursing and healthcare system given the current corona crisis, said Norbert Schindler, Chairman of BDBe.
Sustainable bioethanol is produced for various uses: for cosmetics, beverages and in the medical sector as well as technical alcohols as cleaning or antifreeze agents and as a climate-friendly admixture to petrol.
The production capacity of German plants is around two million litres of bioethanol per day.
The German producers of bioethanol are now able and willing to flexibly provide the required quantities of alcohol for the production of disinfectants, concluded Schindler.
