“Scentsational” idea: Unilever eyes unsold flowers for natural fragrance

In the UK, personal care products giant Unilever is sponsoring a pilot project to extract floral scents from unsold and imperfect ornamental flowers.

In partnership with Bridge Farm Group and the University of Nottingham, the company aims to valorize the nearly 1 billion tons of waste flowers and ornamental plants that go unsold annually.  The scientists are evaluating two methods of extraction: Soxhlet and ultrasonication. The former heats flowers to draw out essential oils, while ultrasonication uses sound waves to disrupt cell walls.

The pilot is starting with oils from petunias, roses, and marigolds. For its part, Unilever will undertake lifecycle and economic assessments “to understand the logistics and the constraints of implementing plant and flower waste materials in the fragrances of our products at a relative scale,” Neil Parry, head of biotechnology at Unilever, told Fast Company.