The Dove brand owner is collaborating with scientists at the University of Nottingham to launch this pilot project, aiming to produce cost-effective ingredients by utilizing plants that would otherwise be discarded. Experts have already begun extracting oils from petunias, roses, and marigolds.
Unilever’s goal is to assess these oils for use in its home care and personal care products, such as shampoos and cleaning products. Currently, the company uses a mix of raw materials derived from natural sources and petrochemicals—compounds derived from fossil fuels.
Unilever noted that fluctuations in seasonal demand and quality issues lead to many tonnes of flowers being wasted each year. To address this, Bridge Farm Group in Spalding, Lincolnshire, which sells 90 million plants to UK retailers annually, is partnering with Unilever to store unsold flowers. The plants’ lives are extended in a 60-acre greenhouse, allowing them to be recycled into raw ingredients in a lab.
Scientists are using a more energy-efficient version of the Soxhlet method—a traditional extraction process where flowers are heated to remove essential oils.
They are speeding up the method by adding ultrasonication, which uses soundwaves to disrupt cell walls and deliver greater yields.
Unilever said the accelerated process takes just 20 minutes to extract the compounds, which is 40% faster than the traditional method.
It also found that repurposing unwanted flowers and waste into fragrance ingredients has the potential to help reduce emissions.
Besides essential oils, Unilever said it also hopes to reduce waste by extracting ingredients and compounds for fragrances called terpenes, lactones and ethers.
The company added that it is also exploring opportunities to extract other high-value ingredients such as complex sugars for textile care in cleaning products and malodour neutralisation for personal care products.
