Leading techniques
Distillation and extractions

Distillation

Steam distillation is one of the most ancient extraction processes, introduced by the Arabs in the 9th century. The process takes place in a still. The raw materials to be distilled might require a physical preparation : hashing, planing into sawdust, steeping with fermentation...

The aim is to withdraw the volatile components of raw materials with steam. Saturated with the essence of the distilled raw material, the steam condenses in a serpentine before being recovered in an "essencier" (a decanting jar for essential oils). The water and esssence are separated automatically as a result of their differing densities.

The substance is removed from the "essencier" as distillation progresses, yielding in the following order "a head", "a heart", and "a tail".

Distillation produces a crude essential oil which can be refined by rectification. This procedure consists in distilling an essence or "absolute" in a vacuum flask to refine it. The low-temperature boiling point obtained under vacuum allows extraction of only the desired parts of the molecules. Through the same kind of procedure, fractioning allows isolation of certain noble elements of crude essential oils.

Volatile solvent extraction

Extraction by volatile solvents consists in treating the raw material in an extractor with a volatile solvent such as hexane or ethanol. After repeated washes, the fragrance-laden solvent is transferred to a concentrator to undergo distillation.

A concrete is thus obtained that is then stirred into alcohol in a churn -called a batteuse then filtered and chilled so as to extract the unsoluble plant wax.

In this way, the pure essence or absolute is obtained after one last concentration. The yield is often superior to that of distillation and the process avoids the hydrolising action of steam.

Extraction by supercritical CO2

Carbon dioxide gas isolated from the atmosphere becomes liquid when pressurized. Submitted to a pressure of over 73.8 bars and a temperature of over 31° centigrade, it passes into a supercritical state where it possesses good solvent properties
Supercritical CO2 extraction allows the raw material to be treated at low temperatures and produces a clearer absolute more faithful to the original scent of the raw material. Furthermore, this process is non-polluting.

Distillation partners

Albert Vieille
Charabot
International Flavors and Fragrances (I.F.F.)
Laboratoire Monique Rémy
Payan & Bertrand
Robertet

Extraction by volatile solvent
partners

Albert Vieille
Charabot
Laboratoire Monique Rémy
Payan & Bertrand
Robertet

Albert Vieille

Tournaire