On RFD-TV: Terry Howell

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06/24/2020 Added

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Terry Howell, Executive Director of the UNL Food Processing Center, appears live on RFD-TV on June 23, 2020. He talks about the partnership to produce hand sanitizer during the pandemic shortage.

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[00:00:00.000]Will pandemic ripple effects take a toll
[00:00:02.890]on ethanol demand?
[00:00:04.440]A University of Nebraska Lincoln partnership
[00:00:06.370]is now working on a creative use for the fuel
[00:00:08.820]to help benefit producers and also front line workers.
[00:00:12.010]Executive director of UNL's food processing center,
[00:00:14.960]Terry Howell, joins us for further look at the program.
[00:00:18.280]And thanks for taking the time to chat
[00:00:19.680]with us this morning, Terry.
[00:00:20.940]If you would, bring us up to speed on the latest partnership
[00:00:23.320]and how things came about.
[00:00:26.090]Well, good morning, Janet.
[00:00:27.060]Yeah, partnership is a great word.
[00:00:28.890]There were three or four different entities
[00:00:31.890]that came together to make this hand sanitizer project
[00:00:36.320]come to work.
[00:00:37.700]We have the Institute of Agriculture Natural Resources
[00:00:40.300]here at the University of Nebraska,
[00:00:41.490]which has has built the food processing center.
[00:00:43.850]The Nebraska Ethanol Board and the College of Engineering
[00:00:46.720]and the three of us came together to find ways
[00:00:49.950]to utilize ethanol that is produced in the state of Nebraska
[00:00:53.760]to solve the problem of hand sanitizer
[00:00:56.541]as people were desperately trying to find it
[00:00:59.940]when the pandemic started.
[00:01:01.130]And so, the College of Engineering has a good partnership
[00:01:04.350]with the Nebraska Ethanol Board,
[00:01:06.151]and they then reached out to us.
[00:01:08.920]Our center typically does product development
[00:01:12.270]and food processing work for the industry to create jobs
[00:01:17.750]and products for the food companies.
[00:01:20.210]And so, we came together in early April
[00:01:22.480]and utilized our facility to build a hand sanitizer plant.
[00:01:27.280]We started on April 5th and as of today
[00:01:30.210]have made a hundred and 20,000 gallons of hand sanitizer.
[00:01:34.420]So where is the hand sanitizer going to use?
[00:01:38.670]We started by trying to meet the needs
[00:01:41.260]across the medical industry, so hospitals, doctors,
[00:01:45.580]and other critical first responders that needed that product
[00:01:51.530]to be able to do their jobs.
[00:01:53.170]And once we met that need in the state,
[00:01:55.460]we then began to reach out to child care centers,
[00:01:58.170]nursing homes, dentists who came on board,
[00:02:02.770]came back to work about a month ago.
[00:02:04.840]We probably have supplied over a hundred
[00:02:06.500]different dentists office,
[00:02:08.130]and now we are looking to supply
[00:02:10.360]the University of Nebraska's campus at large.
[00:02:13.900]There's 20,000 gallons set aside for the campus,
[00:02:17.150]and then the schools across the state of Nebraska.
[00:02:19.820]We've got 60,000 gallons set aside
[00:02:22.500]for K through 12 schools across the state.
[00:02:26.410]Now how long do you guys maybe plan
[00:02:28.000]to continue this program and should folks maybe want to work
[00:02:31.370]on another partnership down the road?
[00:02:33.150]Where could they find that information?
[00:02:35.810]So at this point, we're gonna keep the process going
[00:02:39.200]as long as there is need.
[00:02:40.720]We wanna make sure that the state of Nebraska
[00:02:43.830]and the companies and business are able to get to work
[00:02:47.580]and be able to feel comfortable and safe doing it.
[00:02:51.810]As that need maybe winds down,
[00:02:53.480]and people are able to find hand sanitizer
[00:02:55.270]from different sources, we may begin to shut our plant down,
[00:03:01.903]but if people are interested,
[00:03:03.350]all of the ethanol has been donated to us
[00:03:05.360]by Green Plains Energy and other key ethanol producers.
[00:03:10.250]But we have other costs that we've incurred,
[00:03:12.870]and so, anyone who's interested can find us
[00:03:14.790]at handsanitizier.unl.edu
[00:03:18.070]and from there they can find out more about our program
[00:03:20.788]and ways to support us if they're interested.
[00:03:23.450]All right, well, thank you very much
[00:03:24.440]for joining us.
[00:03:25.273]We appreciate the insight.
[00:03:26.150]Terry Howell with the University of Nebraska Lincoln
[00:03:28.670]joining us 'course there from the university.

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On RFD-TV: Terry Howell

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