We are proud of our innovation, US Patent 11873277 “Circular Economy Methods for Fragrance Ingredients“. It is a sequel to our earlier seminal work, US 11753360 “Circular Economy Methods of Preparing Unsaturated Compounds“, the first fragrance industry patent focused on circular design techniques. [See: “Why Circular Design is Critical for Sustainable Development”.]

Here are some advantages of the circular approach:

– It’s based on ‘green technology’ that embraces Nature’s cyclical processes, crucial for life and ecosystems.

– It contrasts with the ‘take-make-waste’ approach that has led to severe issues like climate change and pollution.

– It is practical and dispels myths of being overly expensive. Increased revenue growth, enhanced reputation, reduced risk of failure, and reduced waste and costs are all possible.

– Many current methods are wasteful, with an estimated resource consumption rate 1.75 times faster than the planet’s regeneration. However, a healthy circular economy and biodiversity-based ecosystem services can have an estimated economic value twice the global GDP*.

Our research focused on chemistry and chemical engineering, specifically for creating novel scent ingredients for perfumes and consumer products. It typically began with catalyst design and fabrication, allowing targeted reactions. These catalysts can guide transformations, to create desired substrates for target molecules. This facilitates both new chemistry and “parallel chemistry,” where substrates can be driven to new products via existing expertise.

Our patent explains how these techniques were validated on various catalysts and functional groups. Supported by complementary technologies such as inherently safer design, continuous processing, advanced separations, modeling, simulation, and AI, these make a strong arsenal of tools for high-yield, low-waste, highly sustainable solutions.

Incorporating these ideas early in design is superior to finding corrective solutions after subpar methods are implemented. Robust development, scaleup, and commercialization are critical. Assessments like life-cycle analyses can provide direction for long-term improvement in areas with initial shortcomings.

Our grateful thanks to our teams and co-patentees that brought these concepts to life.