American agribusiness Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) announced plans this week to increase its capacity for industrial alcohol at the firm’s corn processing complex in Clinton, IA in response to steady demand for hand sanitizer products since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“ADM is one of the largest corn processors in the world, and our scale and flexibility give us the capability to substantially scale up production on short notice to meet shifts in market demand like we are seeing today,” Chris Cuddy, president of the company’s Carbohydrate Solutions business, said in a release. “We’ve already increased production at our Peoria, IL facility to help address the continued growing need for industrial alcohol, and adding additional capacity at our Clinton facility will help us continue to deliver the supply our customers need.”

The corn wet mill currently manufactures a range of industrial products and food and feed ingredients. ADM said the new industrial alcohol capacity will be used on an “on-demand” basis. 

“ADM has a long history of producing high-quality industrial alcohol products, and our customers know they can count on us to meet their needs when other providers may struggle to meet the strict USP specifications required for hand sanitizer production,” Cuddy said. 

Last month, ADM entered into an arrangement to supply ethyl alcohol to North American distilled spirits producer Sazerac Company for the production of hand sanitizer.