Hand Sanitizer Manufacturing

COVID 19 has amplified the importance of hand hygiene, and hand sanitizers are considered one of the major items in the prevention of the spread the virus.

Hand sanitizers are liquids, gels or foams used to eliminate bacteria and viruses, in places where it is hard to impossible to implement full hand washing.

IncBio’s Ultrasonic Cavitation Reactors are ideal for the production of hand sanitizer, with batch or continuous production plants.

Formulations vary widely, however, the most effective sanitizing products are based on alcohol, usually isopropyl or ethyl alcohol. Typically, the alcohol content is between 60 and 95%. The alcohol is usually blended with an aqueous dispersion of carbomers such as Carbopol® to provide the gelling effect, although some products are lower viscosity for use in foam dispensers.
The remaining ingredients may include moisturizers and fragrance and even coloring may also be added.

The Problem
When manufacturing hand sanitizers a number of problems can be encountered:

• Low-density powders such as Carbopol® can be difficult to incorporate into liquids with a conventional agitator, and this can lead to dusting problems and aeration;
• Aeration must be minimized as entrained air is very difficult to remove. This causes clouding in clear gels and problems where packaging is filled by volume rather than weight;
• Long process times are often required to ensure a uniform dispersion;
• Potential full yield is difficult to obtain with conventional agitation; many formulations contain unnecessarily high levels of carbomers to compensate for this;
• Some formulations include surfactants and moisturizers such as glycerin to protect the skin and prevent drying out the skin. These may make up a small proportion of the overall formulation so the mixing system must be capable of dispersing them uniformly throughout the product.

The Solution
The homogenization capabilities of IncBio’s Ultrasonic Cavitation Reactors can overcome these problems, resulting in an aeration-free solution in a short mixing cycle. It even allow the set-up of full continuous production plants, puting aside the common reactor batch processes.

The Advantages
The use of IncBio’s Ultrasonic Cavitation Reactors for this application has a number of advantages:

• The molecular cavitation ensures rapid incorporation and dispersion of the powder to form an agglomerate-free solution;
• Mixing operations can be carried out in a closed continuous system, eliminating aeration;
• IncBio’s Ultrasonic Cavitation Reactors are able to easily blend liquids of widely varying viscosity, eliminating the stratification problems that may occur with an agitator;
• The positive mixing of the IncBio’s Ultrasonic Cavitation Reactors ensures functional ingredients that may only make up a very small proportion of the overall formulation are correctly dispersed throughout the mix, guaranteeing a homogeneous product;
• Improved consistency;
• Because IncBio’s Ultrasonic Cavitation Reactors have no moving parts, maintenance is highly reduced, and the possibilty of operational downtime is minimized.

Hand Sanitizer manufacturing plants with IncBio’s Ultrasonic Cavitation Reactors are built according to your individual specific requirements (continuous or batch production, capacity, formulation, ingredients used, etc).

Please contact us today to find out more about this revolutionary technology.