Life cycle assessment of rose oil and rose water production: a case study in Iran

The life cycle assessment of commercial and traditional first rose water (one-time distillation), second rose water (two-time distillation) and rose oil productions in Iran was implemented, by considering cultivation and processing stages. For all products, the highest energy flow and environmental impacts were associated with traditional approach. According to the specific energy use of final products, rose oil with values of 8,020 and 4,484 MJ/L was dominant energy-intensive product in traditional and commercial systems, respectively. Natural gas and rose petal consumptions during hydro-distillation were the hotspots in the traditional and commercial systems, respectively, with a share of 66.4% in the case of traditional first rose water for the former and a share of 41% in the case of commercial second rose water for the latter. Moreover, raw material acquisition was the main cause behind the majority of environmental impacts categories for all products in both systems. Generally, production of second rose water resulted in higher energy use and greater amount of greenhouse gas emissions compared with the first rose water production in both systems, as two-time hydro-distillation process is required in the former method. For rose oil production, significant greenhouse gas emission occurred (1010 and 625 kg CO2eq per functional unit in traditional and commercial systems, respectively), as a result of low oil content of fresh flowers. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that casts light on the energy consumption pattern and environmental impacts associated with rose water and rose oil production.