TY - JOUR
T1 - Compliance with hand sanitizer quality during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic
T2 - Assessing the impurities in an ethanol plant
AU - Cohen, Gabriel
AU - Kreutzer, Nathan
AU - Mowat, Katie
AU - Aly Hassan, Ashraf
AU - Dvorak, Bruce
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/11/1
Y1 - 2021/11/1
N2 - Using alcohol-based disinfectants is an effective method for preventing the spread of COVID-19. However, non-traditional manufacturers of alcohol-based disinfectants, such as ethanol plants, need to undergo additional treatment to curb their impurities to limits set by the Food and Drug Association (FDA) to produce alcohol-based disinfectants. To transform them to disinfectant-grade alcohol, 17 process streams in a dry-mill ethanol plant were analyzed to determine the quality parameters for acetaldehyde, acetal, propanol, methanol, and water, including chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, and nutrients. Results suggest that the process stream generated by the distillation column requires further treatment because the acetaldehyde and acetal concentrations are significantly higher than the impurity limit set by the FDA. The addition of a second distillation column could be a potential method for addressing impurities and it will have minimal influence on hazardous air pollutant generation and water use.
AB - Using alcohol-based disinfectants is an effective method for preventing the spread of COVID-19. However, non-traditional manufacturers of alcohol-based disinfectants, such as ethanol plants, need to undergo additional treatment to curb their impurities to limits set by the Food and Drug Association (FDA) to produce alcohol-based disinfectants. To transform them to disinfectant-grade alcohol, 17 process streams in a dry-mill ethanol plant were analyzed to determine the quality parameters for acetaldehyde, acetal, propanol, methanol, and water, including chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, and nutrients. Results suggest that the process stream generated by the distillation column requires further treatment because the acetaldehyde and acetal concentrations are significantly higher than the impurity limit set by the FDA. The addition of a second distillation column could be a potential method for addressing impurities and it will have minimal influence on hazardous air pollutant generation and water use.
KW - Hand sanitizer production
KW - Hazardous air pollutants
KW - Impurities
KW - Process streams
KW - SARS-CoV-2
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85111276719&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85111276719&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113329
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113329
M3 - Article
C2 - 34333308
AN - SCOPUS:85111276719
SN - 0301-4797
VL - 297
JO - Journal of Environmental Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Management
M1 - 113329
ER -