More good news for this Monday! The focus on Oil and Gas companies helping fight COVID-19 continues.
Image Credit: INEOS.com
INEOS has a new hand sanitizer plant that started up in late March and is producing about 1 million bottles of hand sanitizer per month. This production is filling a critical need for the UK and Europe where there is currently a shortage. Plants in Germany and France are also on the way, with a fourth planned. Plants are to be up and running in 10 days, with daily calls from the board of directors on progress.
“INEOS is the leading European producer of the two key raw materials needed for sanitisers – isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and ethanol, producing almost 1 million tonnes. The company is already running these plants flat out and have been diverting more of this product to essential medical use including in the new INEOS factories.”
At the time of publishing this article, April 27, 2020, all four of those plants should be up and running, in full production.
Image Credit: ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil is using its deep experience in polymer technology to rapidly produce safety equipment that can be sterilized for multiple use. They have designed a new industrial style mask with a saturated filter to protect workers from the spread of the virus. It can be cleaned repeatedly, hopefully helping with the shortage of N95 masks. They have indicated “they will be able to produce as many as 40,000 ready-to-use masks and filter cartridges per hour.” They are also working on face shields that can be sterilized many times over. They estimate a total of 170,000 per hour could be produced. These products will save lives and protect front-line works from the dangers of the virus.
They are also ready for collaboration: “ExxonMobil, which invented filtration fabric technology in the 1960s, is making its experts available to provide technical expertise and delivering polypropylene from its manufacturing sites in Baytown, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The raw materials will be expedited, if needed, for face mask assembly. The company will also facilitate supply chain interfaces to expedite deployment.”
Image Credit: Total
The Total Group is providing French hospitals fighting COVID-19 with fuel in the form of gasoline vouchers worth up to €50 million good for use at Total stations. Providing free fuel will help release those resources to go to treatment and medical devices needed for care.