The Advocate: Louisiana Inmates are Using Donated Supplies to Make Hand Sanitizer as Coronavirus Spreads

BY CHARLES LUSSIER | STAFF WRITER PUBLISHED APR 2, 2020

Louisiana is producing thousands of bottles of hard-to-find hand sanitizer, thanks to a quickly assembled collaboration among state agencies and three manufacturers donating the ingredients.


Photo: ExxonMobil drums filled with isopropyl alcohol, which is being used to make hand sanitizer for Louisianans.

Inmates at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel on Wednesday began mixing isopropyl alcohol, glycerol, hydrogen peroxide and water in a 700-gallon polyethylene tank. The inmates, who are with the Prison Enterprises division of the Louisiana Department of Corrections, are using a formula developed by the World Health Organization.

ExxonMobil is supplying isopropyl alcohol, or IPA, which is 75% of the WHO formula, by far the biggest component. Procter & Gamble is supplying glycerol, while Solvay is supplying hydrogen peroxide. Water makes up 23% of the formula.

ExxonMobil has donated more than 3,000 gallons of IPA, which it delivered to Hunt on Wednesday morning in 60 drums. The company just so happens to operate in Baton Rouge the world’s largest manufacturing facility for IPA.

Robert Berg, a regulatory adviser with ExxonMobil, said that after some internal discussion, the energy giant decided it would like to help Louisiana as best it could.

“We wanted to put this material back into where we live, back into the community,” Berg said.

IPA is in high demand. Besides its use for hand sanitizers, isopropyl alcohol is a solvent for semiconductors and other industrial processes, said Greg Bass, a product manager with ExxonMobil in Baton Rouge.

Louisiana Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc said Prison Enterprises and the inmates at Hunt “have worked tirelessly to produce large quantities of hand sanitizer” — 14,000 bottles as of Thursday night: “We’re confident this will assist in reducing the spread of Covid-19.”

The effort to produce homegrown hand sanitizer began in early March when the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office, working with Prison Enterprises, created test batches with the idea of sanitize voting machines during what would have been the state’s April 4 presidential primary. The primary, however, was postponed until June 30, so there was no immediate need for voting machine sanitizers.

The state departments of Corrections and Environmental Quality then took over the effort.

DEQ located companies in Louisiana that could supply the ingredients. The agency is also monitoring the mixing process to make sure harmful gases don’t build up. John Pojman, chairman of LSU’s chemistry department, as well as chemistry graduate student Anthony Mai are guiding the process as well.

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