How Ethanol Industry in India Is Playing Saviour In Combating the Corona Virus
One of the precautionary measures of avoiding the COVID-19 Pandemic is to use a hand sanitizer frequently to disinfect your hands. The rise in the pandemic worldwide led to a sudden surge in the demand in hand sanitizers, causing frantic purchases throughout the globe. This led to an abrupt shortage of supply and made way for spurious counterfeit products into the market. Till today, hand sanitizers are out of stock, the reason - inadequate supply of ethanol - a key ingredient of sanitizers. The Ethanol production process requires cornstarch which is converted to glucose and combined with yeast. Toiletries and cosmetics, which include hand sanitizer, account for almost a quarter of India’s end-markets for industrial alcohol. Beyond hand sanitizer, in many cases, one-quarter of hand soap’s ingredients are manufactured by Corn Ethanol Producers, including corn oil and products made from bioprocessing. For example, xanthan gum thickens and stabilizes soap. To address this issue, India has asked its state governments to ensure the continuous availability of ethanol/ ethyl alcohol/ extra neutral alcohol to manufacturers of hand sanitizers to meet the surge in demand due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs said, “All necessary permissions on account of licensing and storage of ethyl alcohol/extra neutral alcohol (ENA)/ethanol have been accorded by the state government agencies to sanitizer companies up to their installed capacity without any quota restriction on supply. State governments have also been asked to give permission to distilleries on a priority basis to produce sanitizer in bulk, which can then be packed and bottled. The ethanol industry is divided into two categories; the first one manufactures the over the counter (OTC) sanitizers where the FMCG brands dominated the market, till the outbreak of corona. However, post-Corona, the local illegal and unregulated production of OTC hand sanitizers have grown in the country. The second category is specialized for hospitals, which is catered to by a different set of MNCs and Indian companies and which is also facing shortages of raw materials due to surge in demand. Ethanol, the primary ingredient in hand sanitizers, is manufactured by sugar mills in India. The Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) and All India Distiller Association (AIDA) have assured the government of an adequate supply of ethanol for the production of sanitizers to meet the increased demand. Additionally, on March 19, the government of India brought production, quality, distribution and prices of alcohol used in the manufacturing of hand sanitizers under the purview of the Essential Commodities Act till June 2020. As such the prices of alcohol used in the manufacture of hand sanitizers cannot exceed the prices as on March 5, 2020.
Praj Industries are one of the major Ethanol plant manufacturers in India helping establish faster production of ethanol and hoping to build a better future for India.