BASF expands sanitizer production and supports VCI platform for nationwide emergency provision

In Germany, BASF is significantly expanding the production of disinfectant at its Ludwigshafen site and has now started production of hand sanitizer based on bioethanol, in addition to the isopropanol-based hand sanitizer manufactured to date.

With the additional quantities of up to 100,000 liters of hand sanitizer per week, the company will support the new nationwide “Notversorgung Desinfektionsmittel” (Emergency Provision of Sanitizer) online platform of the German Chemical Industry Association (Verband der Chemischen Industrie, VCI) free of charge.

Previously, BASF had produced only hand sanitizer containing isopropanol in a pilot plant at the Ludwigshafen site. Now the conditions are in place for a further plant in which bioethanol is also to be used as a starting material. Ethanol was recently approved by the authorities as an additional ingredient. The majority of the resulting extra quantities will be distributed free of charge via the VCI online platform, which was launched a few days ago. This digital marketplace aims to bring together suppliers and potential consumers and coordinate the supply of materials to large-scale consumers on a nationwide scale. The platform is available online at https://notfalldesinfektion.vci.de/.

BASF has gradually expanded the Helping Hands aid campaign over recent weeks. After the company initially only provided hospitals in the MRN with free hand sanitizer, the campaign was broadened to include GP doctor offices that provide local emergency care in the MRN. In addition, BASF now also supplies the disinfectants to towns, cities and administrative districts in the MRN, which in turn provide them to other local institutions, especially nursing homes.

The demand is enormous: Up to now, well over 2,000 hospitals, doctor offices and other health care institutions throughout Germany have been contacted BASF. As the production capacities of isopropanol-based disinfectant are limited to around 35 metric tons per week at the Ludwigshafen site, supplies needed to be prioritized from the very beginning. Thanks to the additional quantities of bioethanol-based disinfectant, the support of cities and municipalities in the MRN can now be expanded further. Other German BASF sites such as Schwarzheide, Münster and Düsseldorf are launching similar initiatives.