Agricultural firm’s by-product useful in making sanitisers

THE Ramu Agri Industries Ltd (RAIL), a part of the New Britain Palm Oil group, is supplying ethanol (ethyl alcohol) to be used for sanitisers.
One of the Covid-19 preventive measures is to wash hands regularly using soap and sanitisers.
Production superintendent Ian Samol said demand for the use of sanitisers also increased the demand for ethanol.
“Companies such as Brian Bell Chemicals and KK Kingston are now using ethanol from RAIL to produce hand sanitisers,” Samol said.
Samol said RAIL, being the only sugar producer in PNG, produced ethanol alcohol from molasses – a by-product of sugar production.
“RAIL has a large stock holding which can be used to produce the hand sanitiser and other products for preventing the spread of the Covid-19,” he said.
“We usually supply an average of 30,000 litres of ethanol per month to buyers.
“With this demand underway and the supply for this month would easily be over 200 000 litres.”
RAIL is working with Kutubu Transport, NCI Packaging and Bismark Maritime to transport the chemical to local companies manufacturing the sanitiser products.
“This is a major boost for local manufacturing and possibly a historic event,” Samol said.