FULLY APPROVED
Many of Britain’s breweries have also
commenced the manufacture of hand
sanitiser, including Brewdog (pictured,
p34, main image). The company, based
in Ellon, Scotland, says it went from
knowing nothing about hand sanitiser to
becoming a fully-approved NHS supplier
in just 14 days, and has since shipped
more than 100,000 units, for free.
The business, which says it wants to
CHEMICAL & PROCESS – HAND SANITISER
share the most important lessons from
its journey, rstly advises following the
World Health Organisation recipe. WHO
has published a nine-page document on
the recipe and process called ‘Guide to
local production’ (www.is.gd/acotot).
Brewdog also advises reference to
the new Health and Safety Executive
guidelines (www.is.gd/otuwib), one of the
key takeaways of which is that plants no
longer have to be a registered bio-site
to produce sanitiser. Hand sanitisers
contain active biocides or biocidequality
substances, typically propanol,
and normally a plant has to register
the fact that it is using propanol under
the EU’s Article 55 (1) of the Biocidal
Products Regulation. However, the HSE
has issued a temporary exemption for
Free compressor loan Scottish spirit bottling business Young Spirits, which
switched operations to produce hand sanitisers to fight
the Covid-19 outbreak, has benefitted from a free loan
offer from compressor manufacturer Vert Technologies.
John Ferguson, director and co-founder of Young
Spirits, explains: “On converting our operations to hand
sanitisers, we needed additional air to power bottling
equipment, so took advantage of the Vert’s ‘free
compressor loan scheme’.”
Vert’s offer of short-term
compressors, free of charge,
to manufacturing companies
that need air for one or two
production machines is designed to
help Scottish businesses cope with
any downturn. Ferguson continues:
“As existing Vert customers – we
already run an A150 model which gives us
more than enough for normal demand – we were keen to
take advantage of Vert’s generous free-loan offer. Our
additional A100 compressor gives us the extra air power
we needed. It was delivered the day we ordered it and was
installed within two hours.”
The A100 and A150 compressors are powered by
Vert’s patented Conical Rotary (CRC) technology. The
A100 compressor is said to offer 100lpm flow and 10 Bar
pressure and the A150 provides 150lpm at 10 Bar.
Autumn 2020 www.operationsengineer.org.uk 33
Bottomley Distillers says adjusting its
processes was relatively easy
/acotot)
/otuwib)
/www.operationsengineer.org.uk