Лако-красочные материалы — производство

Geraniol-nerol, linalool, citronellol, citronellal and citral are five of the most important terpenes as far as the perfume industry is concerned. Apart from citral, all are used as such in perfumes, and the alcohols and their esters are particularly important. All of them are key starting materials for other terpenes, as discussed later. Scheme 4.1 shows the structures of these materials and how they can be interconverted simply by isomerization, hydrogenation and oxidation. The ability to manu­facture any one of these, therefore, opens up the potential to produce all of them and, hence, a wide range of other terpenes. Obviously, if one company produces geraniol-nerol initially and another linalool and both do so at the same cost per kilogramme, then they will not be able to compete with each other on both products. The first is restricted to geraniol-nerol and the second to linalool. Thus, the range of products that any terpene producer can market effectively depends on a fine balance of its feedstock and process costs vis-a-vis those of its competitors.