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Global Impact Innovation (GII) has switched from producing Zein protein to producing and delivering hand sanitizer at mass-scale in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Zein protein from corn has a variety of industrial and food uses.

Since beginning production in mid-April 2020, GII has manufactured and delivered close to 100,000 gallons of sanitizer with a significant portion of its early product donated to hospitals, frontline workers, and vulnerable institutions such as homeless shelters. OSF Saint Luke Medical Center, Los Angeles homeless shelters and other local communities in Henry County, Illinois were among the first recipients of GII’s donation effort.

The production facility, based on the campus of the Big River Resources ethanol plant in Galva, Illinois, was designed to produce Zein protein from corn to address global challenges, such as plastic pollution on land and in oceans. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S., the shortage of basic self-care products such as sanitizers became clear, as did the country’s reliance on the halted global supply chain for replacement products. True to its mission of innovating for positive human impact, GII immediately took that as a duty call and jumped to repurpose the Galva plant to produce ethanol-based sanitizers on a large scale in order to make it available across the United States at an affordable price. It has just completed the additional upgrades to produce 150,000 gallons of sanitizer per week and continue to scale.

GII intends to continue selling hand sanitizer in large quantities and at an affordable price to municipalities, educational institutions, manufacturing plants, and more. GII has scaled its delivery containers from its original 55-gallon drums to now include 275-gallon totes and truck tankers.

Nearly 7,000 gallons of Nebraska-made sanitizer has been donated for use by USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) employees around the country responsible for ensuring the safety of meat, poultry, and egg products. There are 6,500 FSIS field offices across the nation.

The USDA’s initial request included 6,500 gallons of hand sanitizer but deliveries have continued as the need remains – now totaling 6,700 gallons. An additional 6,500 gallons is planned to also be donated, mostly from a very generous donation of food grade (FCC) alcohol from Green Plains Inc., which has donated 81,000 gallons of FCC grade alcohol since the temporary hand sanitizer production facility began in early April. The project was spearheaded by the Nebraska Ethanol Board (NEB).

“Green Plains and our employees remain committed to providing high quality, FDA approved, FCC grade alcohol for the use in production of hand sanitizer,” said Todd Becker, president and CEO of Green Plains. “We are happy to be able to fill a need for the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service employees, as they work hard to keep America’s food supply chain safe.”

Other organizations, including BASF, Cargill, Johnson Matthey, Lee Containers, Phillips 66 Co., the State of Nebraska, and Syngenta have also contributed. The hand sanitizer production facility has a home in the parking lot of Nebraska Innovation Campus’ (NIC) Food Processing Center (FPC). Volunteers have mixed more than 60,000 gallons of hand sanitizer – all from donated raw materials – since the operation began April 5. Production will continue as long as resources allow. So far, every single gallon of product has been provided to these organizations at no cost. For more information about the project, visit handsanitizer.unl.edu.