Perfume Ingredients Derived from Benzene

One of the most important perfume ingredients made from benzene is 

Perfumery interest in this process is four-fold. Firstly, one of the major products, styrene, is a starting material for perfume ingredients, as described above. Secondly, the other major product, propylene oxide, is also a precursor for a number of fragrance materials and for dipropylene glycol, one of the major solvents used in perfumes. Thirdly, the intermediate, styrallyl alcohol, is the starting material for a number of esters used in perfumery, the acetate in particular. Fourthly, but by no means least important, the crude styrallyl alcohol contains a small trace of 2-phenylethanol. Since the SMPO process is run on a scale far beyond that of the perfume industry, what is a small 

It is extremely difficult to purify this by-product 2-phenylethanol to the odour quality of that produced by either of the above routes. However, most of the companies, such as ARCO in the USA and Sumitomo in Japan, who run the SMPO process can produce 2-phenylethanol of a quality which can be used in perfumery (often in collaboration with a perfumery company). The amount of 2-phenylethanol available from this route is dictated by the demand for styrene and propylene oxide, the market value is dictated largely by material from the other two routes and all three run in economic balance. 

One of the most important perfume ingredients made from benzene is 2-phenylethanol. The synthesis of this, and related compounds, is shown 

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