Ethanol Helping ‘Cool’ COVID-19 Rollout

How cool is this? I was just thumbing through my Twitter feed when I saw that Senator John Thune had tweeted;

First, ethanol helped meet the skyrocketing demand for hand sanitizer, Now it can provide much-needed dry ice for safely shipping the COVID-19 vaccine.

There is a caveat. Thune also added in his tweet, With the drop in fuel demand, though, plants are still struggling--limiting this CO2 byproduct.

I took a look at his linked article from High Plains Journal and found out more.

We are just catching wind that Ethanol may be taking on an important role in the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.  Ethanol already fuels automobiles, but it's positive qualities continue to add up. According to the Renewable Fuels Association, plants across the nation capture LOADS of C02 during production. That's a LOAD of the national supply of C02 that's used for beverages and dry ice production.

That's right. Those corn fields you drive by here in South Dakota and around the nation are proving to be valuable in more ways than we could imagine. Dry ice is C02 in its solid form and that dry ice is being used to keep the COVID-19 vaccine super cool as it is delivered nationwide.

Many ethanol plants had either slowed down or in some cases halted production, but it's news like this that has producers perking their ears!

This whole COVID-19 ordeal has stretched and pulled our nation and the world to limits we hoped we would never have to endure. I for one, think it's pretty cool, pun intended, that corn, grown here in the midwest could be part of the long-term solution.