| Title of Process/ Know-how/ Product/Design/Equipment
Technology for the production of 2-phenyl ethyl alcohol (2-PEA): A synthetic rose aroma by hydrogenation of styrene oxide obtained via non-chlorine route from styrene
IPR Status & Details:
US 7235676, IN 02932DELNP2005, CN 1926124B, EP 1732910 (A1), JP 4733109, KR 101131207 (B1) , WO 2005095370 (A1); US 9040755, IN 3656DEL2011, EP 2791095 (A1), WO 2013088454 (A1))
Application/Uses/Problem being addressed
2-PEA is directly used as a rose fragrance in soap industry and in syrup formulations in pharmaceutical industries. 2-PEA is also a starting material for many industrially important aroma chemicals (e.g., synthetic Kevra) and bio-active compounds.
Salient Technical Features including Competing Features/ Impact
TRL Level & Scale of Development:- TRL 6 TRL Reference
Pilot scale (1 Kg)
Business scope & opportunity (in terms of scale, cost, market etc.)
2-phenylethanol (2-PEA) is a naturally occurring rose fragrant chemical currently used as aroma chemical in perfumery, cosmetic industries and in pharmaceutical formulations. The industry uses Pd/C as hydrogenation catalyst for the production of 2-PEA from styrene oxide which is pyrophoric besides producing several by-products, and due to its low physical strength, there is physical loss of the catalyst during recovery operations. Perfumery industry is expanding and 2-PEA would find improving indigenous market opportunity.
Environmental Considerations
Benign process with low effluent load owing to use of reusable urea-like organic promoter for epoxidation
Status of Licensing:
Licensed technology
Technology licensed to-
Status of Commercialization:
Some of the licensee have started putting up a plant for commercial scale manufacture of SO/2-PEA though details of their scale of manufacturing is not known
Major Raw Materials Needed
Styrene, Solid urea, manganese sulphate, water, hydrogen peroxide, toluene, ethyl acetate and dichloromethane, Pd/solid base, hydrogen
Major Plant Equipment and Machinery Required
Reactor, high pressure reactor, distillation unit, centrifugal/filtration unit
Techno-Economics
Attractive and tentatively the product cost would be ~2-2.5 times that of styrene; Available on request;
Technology Package
Know-how for 2-PEA and SO; Demonstration of the process; License fee, royalty and other financial details are available on request.