Coronavirus disease promotes innovation in the chemical industry

The popularity of covid-19 has caused unprecedented damage to the operation of many industries, and has caused extensive economic difficulties for enterprises and consumers. However, the chemical industry also faces an additional obstacle: it is necessary to produce on-site, which makes it impossible to work at home. Coupled with the collapse of global supply and operation chains, sudden and excessive demand for products related to covid-19, such as personal protective equipment and disinfectants, and the inevitable need to maintain distance and sanitation in production sites, are forcing industry innovation and finding new solutions to meet these unforeseen challenges.

This article discusses the latest innovations that the chemical industry has designed to fight epidemics with new technologies, and industries can operate with the necessary preventive measures.

Innovation of chemical industry

Antibacterial and antiviral materials

Textile is one of the potential host surfaces for the transmission of harmful viruses and bacteria, including SARS cov-2, the current pandemic virus. As a result, some textile companies are trying to develop antiviral and antibacterial materials to address this challenge.

HeiQ, a Swiss textile innovation company, launched heiQ viroblock npj03, the first product to treat masks, medical clothing, curtains, air filters and a range of other textiles for antimicrobial and antiviral treatment. The treatment uses a unique combination of vesicles and silver techniques to quickly inactivate lipid envelope viruses, such as coronavirus, and inhibit bacterial and viral replication. Although the efficacy of the treatment for SARS cov-2 has not been tested, this mask has been proved to be effective for another coronavirus (229E) with a very similar structure to SARS, cov-2. In internal trials, treated masks were found to reduce the number of infectious 229E virus particles by 10000 times.

Meanwhile, SABIC, one of the world's largest chemical manufacturers, has launched an antibacterial, touchable wall solution called Lexan cliniwall ac6200. This new thermoplastic material made of polycarbonate / ABS provides a new solution for clean walls in hospitals, industrial environments and public facilities, rather than PVC currently used. Because of its low density and anti fouling performance, the cliewall provides easier installation and maintenance.

Simplified face mask

One of the problems novel coronavirus pneumonia is is the shortage of simple masks. To cope with this, Dow, the chemical giant, has developed a simplified mask design and shares open source documents to speed up additional production worldwide. The key advantage of this design is its flexibility, allowing the production of masks with easily available polymers such as polyolefin, and its simplicity - the mask consists of only two components, one mask and one forehead pad - allowing faster production and distribution.

Machine learning better testing

Mexico chemical company orbia and nano science labs, an Israeli start-up company funded by Sumitomo chemical, have created a coronavirus detection kit based on odor recognition. The test kit contains many parts. A disposable plastic bag is connected to an exhalation tube that enters the nostril. The package is connected to what the company calls a "nose odor recorder," a box with chips that can "smell" the smell. The chip analyzes breathing and sends the results to the cloud, and then from the cloud to any other device. By using the odor samples from several coronavirus patients, an analytical model was developed by machine learning, which can accurately distinguish patients and healthy people. Juan Pablo del Valle perochena, President of orbia, said the test proved to be more effective than temperature testing and "produces immediate results, which is a leap in maintaining public health."