Following three years of work to develop a low carbon ethylene oxide (EO) product and as part of its drive to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, Ineos Oxide has launched and made the first sales of its ‘bio-attributed EO’. Both the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials and International Sustainability & Carbon Certification Plus have certified that this is 100% renewable on a mass balance basis, not competing with food production, and delivers a greenhouse gas saving of over 100% compared to conventionally produced EO.

Ineos has given £100 million, one of the largest ever donations given to a UK university, to launch a new research institute to combat the growing global issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at Oxford University. It will be based at two sites linking the Department of Chemistry and the new Life & Mind Building, which is currently being built.

Ineos used the occasion of the British Grand Prix on 1 August, where it was sponsoring the Mercedes team, to launch Ineos Hygienics, its new global healthcare business. This will be based at Newton Aycliffe, UK, and produce hospital grade hand gels, sanitiser sprays for hands and surfaces and sanitiser wipes out of the facilities the firm converted earliest this year here and in France, Germany and the US.

The news is entirely dominated by the coronavirus pandemic. Here, we summaries some of the key developments in the fine and speciality chemicals industry so far in April

Multiple companies are turning spare capacity over or building new capacity to supply hand sanitiser. Leading the way is Ineos, which had already built three such plants in the UK, France and Germany and has now announced plans to build a fourth at Etian, France, to serve hospitals in Paris, north-eastern France and Belgium.

Chemical companies continue to invest in hand sanitiser in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. A large number of them are now producing in significant volumes.

Ineos, the largest European producer of the two key raw materials - isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and ethanol – has announced its intention to produce 1 million bottles of hand sanitiser/month from each of three newly built facilities in the UK, Germany and France.