DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Hospitals and nursing homes are desperately searching for hand sanitizer amid the coronavirus outbreak and the ethanol industry is ready to step in to provide the alcohol, a key ingredient. Federal regulators are preventing them from providing millions of gallons of alcohol that could be transformed into the germ-killing mixture.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration insists that the alcohol at ethanol plants meet stringent production standards designed to protect medicine and food quality. In addition the alcohol must be mixed with a bitter additive to make it undrinkable.

The ethanol industry is asking for waivers during the coronavirus emergency.