Takasago perfumer: green chemistry will create transformative spices

Like biotechnology, green chemistry is also a key enabler to help the perfume industry transition to natural and sustainable. French natural raw material supplier Afyren pointed out that the potential replacement of petrochemical molecules and the production of new raw materials arising from this will soon be scaled up. Well-known perfumer Antoine Lie said that green chemistry has also paved the way for the birth of a new and pioneering olfactory fragrance.

Antoine Lie graduated from Givaudan Perfume School and worked at Givaudan until 2011 before transferring to Takasago Perfume Industry Co., Ltd. He pointed out that companies that replace petrochemical-derived fragrances with 100% natural green chemical fragrances are still niche. Due to the small yield and high cost of spices produced by the green chemical process, their large-scale research and development are restricted.

 Lie is fully committed to the exploration of natural perfumes. Now, the creator turned to players who are at a new industry level. These company players are committed to developing natural aroma precursors that are mass-producible, affordable, and reactive.

 Afyren is such a company. It can use plant biomass to create molecules that could only be synthesized from petroleum. Jérémy Pessiot, founder and director of the company, said: "Our solution involves developing the value of agricultural and sideline products and obtaining existing petroleum-based synthetic molecules."

These agricultural and sideline products originate from agriculture, especially the sugar industry. Afyren first recovers sugar beet pulp or molasses from sugar factories, and then obtains organic acids through fermentation, and then produces raw materials for human and animal food, cosmetics, and fragrance and perfume industries.

The company was founded in 2012 and is one of the few in this field. At present, it is ready to mass produce these natural and environmentally friendly raw materials. At the end of 2020, Afyren will start construction of a factory in France, and plans to supply 16,000 tons of organic acid annually.

Pessiot said: "We can produce seven kinds of carboxylic acids at the same time, and to obtain them from petroleum requires seven different factories or processes."

 While waiting for industrial production, Afyren has cooperated with several perfume companies to produce related products on a smaller scale. In the field of perfumery, these molecules are mainly used to obtain fruity flavors and ester flavors (made by combining alcohol and acid).

Lie explained: "As long as there are these two (alcohol and acid) natural ingredients, the ester fragrance family can be copied. The perfume industry uses a lot of esters, because they are very cheap, so they are widely used. Therefore, they can find alternative Things are interesting. My job is to make sure that the olfactory properties of the substitutes are the same as the synthetic version. "

Afyren's philosophy is to combine existing natural raw materials with reactants derived from green chemistry. The result may be to bring new olfactory raw materials to the market, not only to ensure originality, but also to produce a large amount.

In this regard, Lie said: "This shows that green chemistry has a very bright future in the perfume industry. All these actions are contributing to the green transformation of the perfume industry."