Novel route to a fruitful mixture of terpene fragrances in particular phellandrene starting from natural feedstock geraniol using weak acidic boron based catalyst

Myrcene, ocimene and in particular phellandrene were selectively generated as products by dehydration of the natural feedstock geraniol over a weak acidic boron pentasil zeolite catalyst in a gas phase reaction. Additionally linalool was formed by rearrangement reaction. The total selectivity of these 4 terpenes is up to 99%. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.