Honours Chemistry students Prashansa Kooshna and Julie Dayrit.
With the scope of the global COVID-19 pandemic expanding quickly, Honours Chemistry students Julie Dayrit and Prashansa Kooshna wanted to help, hoping that they might be able to produce hand sanitizer in now-vacant chemistry labs after the closure of the Saint Mary’s University campus.
“It all started before the SMU campus lockdown as Prashansa and I were discussing the cases of COVID-19 in Canada and the shortage of protective equipment against COVID-19 situation,” said Julie.
“We then started drafting plans to work with what we can find in the drug stores to make hand sanitizers to be available for the public. We realized that we would need help to execute this.”
“We research potential gelling agents and set up little labs to test each recipe at our own apartments,” said Julie.
The students worked with Drs. Jason Masuda and Clarissa Sit, who offered advice on the recipe, explaining the chemical ingredients of other hand sanitizers and how to make a good product with the appropriate consistency.
Once it became clear how much bigger this project could be, the students contacted the Halifax Distilling Company, whose owners were already looking at creating this valuable commodity.
In hindsight it’s a good thing we teamed up with the Halifax Distilling Company,” said Dr. Masuda. “They are able to produce much more hand sanitizer than the 50 litres or so we could have produced in a lab on campus.”
Nova Scotia Power provided funding for the project, on the condition that they will purchase the sanitizer at cost, and that a portion would be donated to community organizations like Souls Harbour Mission.
“We are working with the Halifax Distillery with the bulk production, troubleshooting, and packaging,” said Julie.
“Once all of the shipments arrive, we will start our production. I am also communicating with Caremongering Halifax to target deliveries of these hand sanitizers for front line workers for free.”