NAUGATUCK, CONN. (PRWEB) OCTOBER 26, 2018
P2 Science Inc., a venture-backed, biorenewable chemistry company made today the first ever commercial quantities of a breakthrough vegetable based linear fragrance aldehyde at its new plant opened in September. The product, BioNonanal™ is a 100% renewable linear C9 aldehyde, commonly used in fragrances to impart waxy, citrus and floral notes to consumer products in both household and personal care markets.
To date, nonanal has been mainly produced from a petrochemical, Octene. The only option for a renewable nonanal has been via a costly extraction process from certain essential oils such as orange oil. The resulting cost of such a natural extract nonanal made it impractical to use in most fragrance applications. P2’s patented green chemistry process enables the efficient conversion of many common vegetable oils into nonanal and other valuable specialty products for use in cosmetics and related applications.
The BioNonanal™ made by P2 in this first commercial campaign used palm oil from Malaysia as the feedstock. The company recently attracted investment from Xeraya Capital, a Malaysian fund. Other vegetable oil feedstocks suitable for use at the plant include US soybean, rapeseed and castor. The process used to make the BioNonanal™ was the subject of recently granted US Patent 10,071,944. As described by P2’s Chief Science Officer, Patrick Foley, the process “mimics what occurs in nature when natural oils on the human skin are oxidized by air to produce aldehydes. It’s simple, green, natural chemistry.”
Looking ahead P2 plans to produce a range of renewable flavor and fragrance ingredients at the Naugatuck plant. Some of these, like BioNonanal™ , will be renewable versions of existing petrochemical products. Others will be brand new to market products made possible by P2’s unique process capability. One such novel ingredient, Hydrofleur™ was introduced in June by P2’s marketing partner, Bedoukian Research at the World Perfumery Congress in Nice, France.
Neil Burns, CEO, described the Naugatuck plant as running a process unlike any other. “We do oxidation, inspired by nature, run under the mildest imaginable conditions, gently cooled to below 40 Degrees Fahrenheit, with no applied pressure or heat and a tiny environmental footprint. It’s deceptively simple, but it’s never been done before. It opens up a whole new set of options for cost effective renewable products for many applications. And BioNonanal™ is just the start.”
