Randolph Fire Dept. gets sanitizer donation from Iowa firm
Mike Brownlee
COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA — As concerns about coronavirus ramp up across the globe, hand sanitizer has become a scarce resource. Shelves at retail outlets remain barren to this day, the product gone as soon as it’s available while the world comes to a stop during the COVID-19 pandemic.
With demand high, ethanol plants in Iowa have joined forces with a number of businesses and agencies to make more sanitizer available, especially where it’s needed most.
Staff at the Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy ethanol plant south of Council Bluffs have set up a makeshift production line to produce “SIREtizer.”
The hand sanitizer is more of a liquid, when compared to commercial sanitizers like Purel, but it gets the job done — the SIRE product is 80% alcohol, well above the recommended 60% needed to be effective.
The group recently donated several cases of the SIRE hand sanitizer to the Randolph Fire Department.
The effort started in earnest after the Food and Drug Administration relaxed regulations that paved the way for plants to shift part of their focus from gasoline to sanitizer.
On March 27, the Food and Drug Administration issued temporary regulatory relief to allow ethanol plants to move forward with plans to make sanitizer. That came after pressure from the ethanol industry and other stakeholders trying to get the all-clear to start production. The FDA said it will consider each plant on an individual basis and grant approval only if a plant meets quality control specifications.
SIRE, among other plants across the state, met the FDA specifications for production.
“As soon as those regulations were removed, we were already in the process of sourcing ingredients, so it’s been a mad dash to get totes made up, ready for bottling,” said Eric Dreessen, plant engineer at SIRE.
During a tour of the plant’s sanitizer operation, Dreessen and plant Regulatory Manager Justin Schultz talked about what they’re doing at SIRE to battle coronavirus.
Dreessen and Schultz explained the SIRE process and recipe, which comes from the World Health Organization and is approved by the FDA, which produces 250-gallon batches.
Plant workers fill plastic totes with 200 gallons of 200 proof alcohol, then add pharmaceutical-grade glycerol, hydrogen peroxide (at 3% before it goes in, Schultz noted), distilled water and a bittering agent. The ingredients are mixed and then the sanitizer is tested in the plant chemistry lab to ensure the alcohol percentage is where it should be — 80%.
With the FDA relaxed guidelines, the only denaturant — an additive required to give a bitter taste to discourage ingestion — SIRE is required to put in the sanitizer is denatonium benzoate. It’s safe for skin, but don’t drink it.
“So kids don’t take a second gulp,” Schultz said, regarding concerns children would drink the product.
Staff members do a final quality control check to make sure no particles made it through the process, “and then it’s ready to bottle,” Dreessen said.
Schultz said the totes are triple-rinsed with water and sterilized with alcohol before the process begins.
SIRE expects to send out more than 25,000 gallons by the end of the week. One roadblock, which is quickly being overcome, is bottles.
SIRE bought another 3,000 1-gallon bottles from Cookies BBQ at cost, with an eye toward a partnership that will further increase production.
Where is the sanitizer going? First and foremost to hospitals and clinics, along with first responders.
SIRE is working with the CHI Health and Methodist health systems, along with others, to get the product where it’s most needed. A dry erase board in Schultz’s office on Wednesday listed the destinations: 200 gallons apiece to CHI Health Mercy and Methodist Jennie Edmundson hospitals in Council Bluffs, the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha and Faith Regional Health Services in Norfolk, Nebraska.
The company is donating the sanitizer, asking them to save bottles to be refilled for free when needed. The only future cost for a hospital would be for additional bottles, if needed.
“It’s for a good cause,” Schultz said of the effort. “We think this is going to be a really good supply for them.”
SIRE is selling its sanitizer to Pottawattamie County at cost. The company is also in discussions with Offutt Air Force Base, the Ponca Tribe and Mid-American Energy.
Last week SIRE also shipped 1,200 gallons of alcohol denatured with isopropyl — a stronger denaturant than the aforementioned denatonium benzoate — to the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in central Iowa, with another 1,200 set to go out on Monday. Prisoners there are working on a production line to make sanitizer with the SIRE alcohol blend to be sent to the state’s COVID-19 Emergency Operations Center, where leaders from various state agencies are working to tackle the pandemic.
Daniel Clark, director of Iowa Prison Industries, an agency that provides work training to Iowa inmates, said the prison has produced 2,400 gallons so far, with the plan to produce 4,500 gallons weekly, for the EOC, which distributes the product around the state. Deliveries by the EOC have been made to nine Department of Corrections institutions, eight judicial districts, five Department of Human Services institutions and the Iowa Veterans Home. And more than 140 gallons have made their way to DHS childcare facilities.
“They’ve been super helpful,” Clark said of SIRE. “It’s really been great. There is no way on earth we’d be able to do it without the ethanol plants.”
The prison system is also producing patient gowns, face shields and masks.
Along with SIRE, the agency thanked a number of partners on the project, including Gov. Kim Reynolds’ office, the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, Templeton Rye Distillery, Iowa Alcoholic Beverage Division, the FDA and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
Like Overton, Clark praised the prisoners working to help fight COVID-19.
“IPI has done incredible work securing the needed components, dealing with shipping, production and safety issues. It’s been a pleasure to work with them because IPI simply refused to take ‘no’ for an answer and have successfully put out thousands of gallons of hand sanitizer with more being produced every day,” Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monte Shaw said about the effort.
About 400 of the 900 in the program work for private companies for $10 to $16 per hour, where they’re allowed to work outside the prison. When things are normal, at least.
“That all ended with the virus. We’re not sending offenders off ground at all,” Clark said.
But whenever the pandemic subsides, prisoners will be able to leave with a resume that will help them get jobs in a state with a workforce gap. And they’ll have helped battle COVID-19 with a variety of organizations and businesses.
An additional source of sanitizer throughout the state and region has come from distilleries. Schultz said SIRE is providing alcohol to Patriarch Distillers and Brickway Brewery & Distillery in Omaha and Lonely Oak Distillery in Earling in Shelby County to assist as those companies create hand sanitizer.
SIRE is also setting up contracts with chemical wholesalers and other companies to get more alcohol out for conversion to sanitizer.
It’s part of a communal effort to produce more hand sanitizer.
“We’re all coming together to try to make a difference,” Schultz said
Lastly, SIRE is working with local retailers. Some area bars and restaurants have already worked with the company to sell half-gallon, gallon and quart-sized bottles, available for purchase during a pickup of takeout food and drink. And there are a limited amount of small spray bottles for $4, also.
Schultz, who also serves on the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors, said the cost for a gallon is $25, half gallon is $15 and quart is $10. The project is in the pilot phase to test the market. So far, the sanitizer is selling fast.
Like many industries, ethanol plants have felt the economic hit of COVID-19, with the vast majority of Americans either working from home or, unfortunately, not working at all, meaning less driving and less gas station stops. Schultz and Dreessen said the company is working to be ready for when the pandemic subsides and the economy starts to awaken. But for now, it’s doing what it can to both stay productive and help during the pandemic.