Increased production capacity of alcohol-based sanitizer to combat the spread of COVID-19

The availability of personal hygiene products, and in particular alcohol-based hand sanitizer, is of crucial importance to help limit the risks of spreading COVID-19 in the population while reducing the inconveniences associated with confinement as much as possible. However, from the first days following the declaration of the state of health emergency in Quebec, significant problems with the supply of disinfectant gel were observed. The trend is widespread around the world, and it is not close to being resolved as it will play a key role in enabling economic recovery while reducing the risk of virus spread. Several microbreweries and distilleries have leveraged their facilities to help meet demand, but with their ethanol production process not optimized, supply issues persist and the costs of hand sanitizers remain high. The biostimulant product developed by the CNETE for the company Ferme Aumais could help solve this problem. Tests carried out so far with this product have shown an impressive increase in ethanol production yield when this biostimulant is added to the culture medium. According to the results obtained, the use of this product could make it possible to obtain ethanol production yields close to the theoretical maximum thresholds without having to optimize the processes, in addition to considerably accelerating fermentation. The proposed project therefore aims to produce a biostimulant that can be used by microbreweries, distilleries and other centers wishing to accelerate and improve their production of ethanol intended for the production of hand sanitizer and to confirm the potential of this newly developed biostimulant.