Chemical Forums
Specialty Chemistry Forums => Other Sciences Question Forum => Topic started by: Enthalpy on April 04, 2020, 03:22:11 AM
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Hello you all,
The World Health Organization published a recipe for a disinfecting hydroalcoholic mixture
https://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/tools/system_change/guide_production_locale_produit_hydro_alcoolique.pdf (I saw it in English too)
and refineries could produce it the big way. It's not exactly a gel, but the function is the same.
- Ethanol can be obtained without delay from water and from ethylene, abundant in refineries.
- Glycerine is a by-product of palm oil processing, especially to make biodiesel. Some refineries or companies do both.
- I understand pasteurization can replace hydrogen peroxide. If not, produce it.
- Water is available in many countries.
Equipment existing at refineries must be too dirty, so new one must be added on the fly. It needs no new engineering, and specialized companies can produce it quickly.
Governments must address the risk of transformation into drinks with unusual flexibility and reactivity.
Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy
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Meanwhile, such mixtures are available in German supermarkets in litre quantity. They avoid all expressions like "hydroalcoholic gel" and sell like "hand sanitizer" or similar. The added perfume may prevent the misuse for drinks, propanol too.
The ones I saw contain mainly ethanol, about a fourth propanol, some water. That would be obtained naturally from the C2+C3 flux at a refinery.
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I've bought this bad booze for cleaning purposes, and it hurts the hands.
First, it stinks like methylated spirits. I guess the manufacturer adds denatonium. Yuk.
Second, there is no emollient in it. No glycerine. Bad! The WHO had recommended glycerine in the hand disinfectant meant for poor villages in poor countries that don't have a network for drinking water. But here, in a rich country, the manufacturer saved on the glycerine. They sell methylated spirits with added water as a hand disinfectant. That's amateur's job.
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But in a restaurant, I used a hand disinfectant that didn't hurt. It did stink denatonium. Possibly the emollient makes the difference.
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The WHO formulation looks interesting. Please, a little help. The purpose of the ethanol is to sterilze, correct? As long as ethanol is above 60%, it will sterilize?
My understanding of the h2o2 was for the packaging. It is to sterilize it.
I hoped, in the US, the bioethanol industry would be converted to provide the alcohol. It's set up for fuel for cars, now and is barely getting by. Switching to straight ethanol would help them as well as the overall alcohol supply. Rubbing alcohol has been hard to get, lately.
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Ethanol sterilizes, propanol too. I don't know if the proportion is >60% or >70% or similar, but it works better with some water. According to WHO, the peroxide serves to inactivate germs that may be present in the "product", but is not the hand antiseptic - I don't understand that, not my profession.
The hand disinfectants I've seen here in shops lack peroxide. They also lack glycerine and hurt the hands, while the disinfectant I used in a restaurant didn't. Relationship? WHO tells glycerine serves to protect the skin. I've seen their recipe in English somewhere.
Bioethanol for cars looks interesting, if the amounts suffice. If every household consumes 60L gasoline a month, of which 3L are bioethanol, the production capacity may suffice or not for hand disinfectant. 1L per month and per person wouldn't supply a regular use, but an occasional one yes.