Life cycle assessment for Ambrox® production from different chemical routes

Industrial processes usually have significant environmental impacts due to the emissions associated with different production processes, resource depletion, and ecosystem alteration. Since these processes are designed to meet primarily economic aspects, there arises a need to balance with social and environmental issues. Strategies such as process integration and optimization have been used to reduce the overall environmental impact through recycle and reuse of materials or via the adoption of alternative manufacturing routes which may result in enhancing the economic and/or environmental objectives. Ambrox® is a high value chemical used in the perfume industry. The traditional chemical processing route represents significant environmental problems. In this paper, an economic and environmental evaluation of the chemical routes from Sclareol (the most common chemical route) and from Ageratina jocotepecana (an endemic plant from the State of Michoacan in Mexico) is analyzed to determine the feasibility of using the latter as an alternative for the production of Ambrox®. The results are analyzed using the Life Cycle Assessment method and show that the chemical pathway from A. jocotepecana offers environmental and economic advantages over the current process.