Givaudan and LanzaTech NZ, Inc. are collaborating to make sustainable perfume ingredients from renewable carbon.
- Synthetic biology agreement could see perfume ingredients made from renewable carbon.
- Expanding the ways in which resources can be generated in a way that avoids or substitutes the use of additional fossil carbon will play a key role in overall economic decarbonisation.
- If Coty, which owns many fragrance brands, can produce perfume with carbon captured ethanol, the consumer market could be facing a rapid transformation.
Givaudan is a global industry leader in the world of scent and beauty, and LanzaTech is a carbon capture and transformation company which is exploring multiple ways to store and use CO2.
The collaboration describes the ingredients to be developed as to be based on renewable carbon which, for these purposes, is described as carbon that avoids or substitutes the use of additional fossil carbon. Examples include carbon from CO2 and carbon recycling.
Multiple commercial facilities are already licensing LanzaTech’s technology, converting various waste carbon sources to ethanol, including the conversion of industrial emissions in China, thanks to the power of industrial biology and a proprietary biocatalyst.
LanzaTech has been working on carbon capture and transformation and while it has worked with partners from steel manufacturers to aviation fuel developments, it is the conversion of emissions to ethanol that could see the biggest transformation in the consumer market.
Ethanol can be broken down into a variety of building blocks, which can then be used as a basis for a wide range of consumer goods, such as laundry detergent, clothing, shoes, and food packaging.
In addition, thanks to its synthetic biology and modelling capabilities, LanzaTech can introduce new pathways into their biocatalyst to produce a variety of different chemicals through this process.
The research collaboration with Givaudan is one that is expected to leverage this synthetic biology capability and go beyond the production of ethanol, with the companies working together to establish novel pathways to key fragrance ingredients used across the Givaudan portfolio.
By searching for new opportunities to bring perfumery material innovations to life, the companies have a shared goal of using sustainable methods to continue serving consumers through enhancing the perfumery palette and being good for the planet as well.
Both companies have been longstanding members of the Renewable Carbon Initiative, an organisation whose goal is to support and speed up the transition from fossil carbon to renewable carbon for all organic chemicals and materials.
“Industry has to go beyond using renewable energy,” said Michael Carus, founder of the RCI. “All fossil carbon use must end, as the carbon contained in the molecules of chemicals and plastics is destined to end up in the atmosphere sooner or later. Only a full phase-out of fossil carbon will help to prevent a further increase in atmospheric CO2 concentrations.”
