Tel Aviv: Israeli scientists have taken a new initiative in the fight against the coronavirus. They have found a way to make low-cost ethanol from waste to be used as a sanitizer. Professor Hadas Mamne of Tel Aviv University and his team have been working towards recycling the waste and converting it into alcohol for the last five years.
Now in response to the increasing global demand for hand sanitisers, they have focused on the production of ethanol in Israel to reduce the need for alcohol imports. Mamne said in her lab- Here we have paper remnants from a factory, some straws from a zoo and hay collected from Tel Aviv municipality. They added a small amount of these to a reactor and added ozone gas.
Ethanol is produced from vegetable sources such as sugarcane or corn. However, it is a complex and expensive process. The professor said that our success is that we have used small amounts of ozone to do this process on a very small and cheap scale. Now we can make ethanol in a way, which is good for the environment and it is easy and cheap to make.
It goes on to state that Israel gained acclaim in March and April for swift action against the Coronavirus epidemic, including early travel restrictions. However, the strategy to reopen it has faced criticism as the country has seen a sharp rise in cases of corona infection. More than 33 thousand coronavirus infection cases have been reported in the Jewish state, including 346 deaths.
