Disinfectants

"My name is Benedikt and I need your booze now" With this appeal, spirits producer Benedikt Brauers asked for private alcohol donations for the production of disinfectant. And he is not alone in this; since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, disinfectants have been in short supply and the demand for pure alcohol for their production has also risen sharply. Christoph Berg, Managing Director of the analysis company specializing in the ethanol industry F.O. Licht, estimates the additional demand for pure alcohol for disinfectant production in Europe at 20 million liters per month.

Wanderer distillery

Benedikt Brauer normally produces the finest gin under the wanderer destillerie brand in his distillery, but during the coronavirus crisis he quickly converted his distillery into a non-profit business for the production of disinfectants. This is done in cooperation with a pharmacy, because when production began in March 2020, only pharmacies had a special permit to produce disinfectants.

To ensure that production is as efficient as possible and large quantities of disinfectant can be produced, the company is asking for alcohol donations from local residents so that it can produce around 1000 bottles of disinfectant. The disinfectant is mainly supplied to doctors' surgeries and care facilities, "where it is most urgently needed", says Brauer.

And it is needed in many places. Large companies such as Beiersdorf, Alpirsbacher Klosterbräu and Jägermeister have also decided to get involved in production. Beiersdorf announced back in mid-March that it would be making 500 tons of hand sanitizer available for hospitals, staff and public institutions. The pivot has also paid off for Wanderer - the start-up has now produced several hundred liters of disinfectant (as of 20.04).

Alpirsbacher Klosterbräu

The well-known brewery Alpirsbacher Klosterbräu also provides 8000 liters of the cleaning liquid. The agent is obtained from excess ethanol left over from the brewing of alcohol-free beer.

UVIS UV-Innovative Solutions

However, in addition to medium-sized start-ups and large corporations that dare to change their product range, there are also start-ups whose business purposes focus entirely on the topic of disinfection.

For example, uvis, the Cologne-based startup has developed a disinfection module for escalator handrails that makes them germ-free in seconds using UVC rays.

The founders came up with the idea for the product back in 2010, when Tanja Zirnstein (nickel) and Katharina Obladen took part in a school competition and thought about how pathogens could be effectively combated in public spaces. "Electricity is available on every escalator and we were familiar with the use of UV light to reduce germs from the food industry - so why not use the same principle for escalator handrails," explains Katharina Obladen. As a result, the two patented their product ESCALITE while still at school.

After completing their studies in 2016, they founded uvis UV innovations and became the first recipients of funding from the newly launched NRW.SeedCap, which provides young companies, particularly those in the digital economy, with their first funding, although it is not yet possible to say how effective the disinfection technology is against the Covid-19 virus. Nevertheless, the idea is very innovative and an example of original developments despite - or precisely because of - a crisis.

That was part #2 of our "Pivot Masters" series. Next week, in the third part, we will focus on the topic of "ventilators".