Bridgestone Looking at Dandelion Rubber as Possible Replacement for Tree-Based
By Scott Doggett August 7, 2008
Long the bane of lawn owners everywhere, the sunny-faced dandelion could revolutionize the rubber industry.
Scientists from Ohio State University and the Ohio BioProducts Innovation Center recently received a $3 million grant to design and build a processing plant that would turn sticky white dandelion root sap into quality rubber, according to a Discovery News article published this week.
"We still haven't been able to find an artificial substitute for natural rubber," said William Ravlin, a researcher involved in the project. "We're still harvesting [rubber] the same way they did 1,000 years ago -- by cutting into the tree and letting the sap drip into containers. It's not a very efficient system."
Efficiency, the Ohio scientists say, would be Midwestern farmers in air-conditioned tractors harvesting acres of dandelions with the same machines used to pull tulip bulbs.
Ten to 20 percent of the plant's carrot-like root is rubber-ready. "And that's without modifying them with biotechnology or breeding," Ravlin told Discovery News.
Researchers expect that within a few years the processing plant in Ohio could produce about 20 million tons of rubber annually.
Synthetic rubber doesn't perform as well as natural rubber. Car tires can contain as little as 10 percent natural rubber, but the more demanding the job, the more natural rubber is needed: Airplane tires are 100 percent natural rubber.
Some of the dandelion rubber will eventually go to Bridgestone, a leading tire manufacturer.
"I think this has some real potential," Bridgestone's Jason Poulton told Discovery News.
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