Pharma-Grade Ethanol: Thinking beyond Fuel-Grade Ethanol

by Ghanshyam Deshpande (Praj Industries/Biofuels Digest) ... In fact, there have been global shortages due to the huge demand and supply gap of pharma grade ethanol since the pandemic. To meet the demand posed by the pandemic, distilleries (ethanol plants) rose to the occasion by ramping up the production of ethanol. Enforced lockdowns caused a reduction in the number of vehicles on the road resulting in decreased fuel usage. This caused the world to experience a drying up of fuel demand. Demand for ethanol used in the blending with gasoline also decreased. Plants producing fuel ethanol have thus tried to survive the sudden drop in fuel demand by exploring product diversification. While some plants have idled, some throttled up the production capacity of ethanol.

Pharma grade ethanol consumption is increased from 16240 million liters (Global ethanol production 116000 million liters) from past 2019 to 18560 million liters in 2020 (Global ethanol production 99800 million liters). Some producers of corn-based fuel ethanol have switched their outputs to the pharma-grade alcohol needed for hand sanitizers and other pharmaceutical products containing ethanol.

What is Pharma grade ethanol?

Pharma grade ethanol is high purity alcohol with stringent specifications. It is used in a variety of manufacturing processes in the pharmaceutical industry like sanitizers, topical disinfectants, solvents, and preservatives in pharmaceutical preparation and many other pharmaceutical applications. The primary impurity of concern in pharma-grade ethanol is acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is “possibly carcinogenic to humans” according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Acetaldehyde along with Acetal limits have been set at 10 ppm in various pharmacopeia like British Pharmacopoeia, European Pharmacopoeia, and the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). Other congeners like methanol, as per USP, should not be more than 200 ppm, benzene not more than 2 ppm and total congeners put together not more than 300 ppm as per the United States Pharmacopeia (USP).

With the sudden rise in the demand of pharma-grade ethanol, and considering its stringent specifications there is a need for advanced technology.

The advanced technology solution catering to all these demands is the EcoSmart technology.

Praj’s Ecosmart Technology

Being a leader in the ethanol industry, Praj holds proprietary technology which not only converts existing fuel ethanol plants to pharmaceutical-grade ethanol plants but also maximizes profits. Existing ethanol plant systems can be re-engineered and thus upgraded to produce pharmaceutical-grade ethanol. This leads to an easy and fast switch between fuel and pharma-grade ethanol. The same facility can produce fuel and pharma-grade ethanol simultaneously.

Praj has built around 20 pharma-grade ethanol plants across the globe and more than 150 plants for beverage-grade ethanol. At present we are building about 6 plants in North America that can produce various grades of ethanol including Pharma & Beverage grade. Our plant in Hungary is a live testimony of the successful product diversification and functionality for the past 8 years. READ MORE