The Robertet Group: From Scientific Collaboration to Steps Towards Industrial CPC

Founded in 1850, The Robertet Group is a key player in the design and composition of fragrances, flavors, and natural raw materials. Working on a worldwide scale, the company generates net sales of more than 500 million euros per year. They are a leader in the industry, operating with very high standards for supply guarantees, regulatory restrictions, and consistently repeatable qualities for the products they offer.

Customer Profile: The Robertet Group

Industry: Fragrance, Flavors, Natural Raw Materials Extraction

Size: 1000-5000 Employees

Products Used: CPC 250, CPC 1000 PRO, and PLC 2250

Although The Robertet Group’s development was characterized by its use of classical distillation techniques, Gilson has been helping the company explore the potential of centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) for almost six years. In this framework, our team recently interviewed Hugues Brévard, Director of Analytical Development and CPC pioneer at The Robertet Group.

The Robertet Group quickly recognized CPC's benefits over conventional processes that use heat, which affects some of the natural extract qualities. The question that came up for the team at The Robertet Group was how to optimize such a technological breakthrough. For Hugues Brévard, the answer was to turn to Gilson Purification’s CPC Application Laboratory: "The long-term support we received from this structure allowed us, even before getting our own purification system, to create important tests and access experts with whom we could solve our issues."

Today, Robertet has a complete purification system (CPC 250, CPC 1000 PRO, and PLC 2250) which "in addition to better preserving the qualities of the products, has already challenged another purification process that was very firmly anchored in our habits." Hugues Brévard added that in the future, "this system will also allow us to innovate differently and prepare for the arrival of the CPC for scale-up production."

I am convinced that this technique is a strong fit for our market.

– Hugues Brévard

"I am convinced that this technique is a strong fit for our market," insists Hugues Brévard, "but manufacturers must responsibly contribute their expertise to support such projects—buying an industrial CPC from a product catalog is a complete aberration. The feasibility study and optimization steps before industrializing a process are critical to get quality products and accessing Gilson's application lab resources was a critical enabler."

VERITY® Compact CPC System

The VERITY® Compact CPC System combines a PLC Purification System with a centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) system for high-level target compound purification. This automated, cost-effective, liquid-liquid purification technique utilizes reusable, silica-free chromatographic columns to streamline your workflow and allow you to quickly isolate specific molecules with high yields and purity.

Learn More