Scientists Awarded In 'Natural Rubber From Dandelion’ Project

Christian Schulze Gronover, Dirk Prüfer, Carla Recker and Reimund Neugebauer at the award ceremony of the Joseph von Fraunhofer Award for the project “RUBIN – Industrialization of dandelion rubber.”

Leading scientists involved in a project titled “RUBIN – Industrial Emergence of Natural Rubber from Dandelion” have been awarded the prestigious Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize for their research on the Russian dandelion and the development of car tire prototypes based on dandelion rubber.

Receiving the award were Dirk Prüfer, of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology; Christian Schulze Gronove, of the Institute for Plant Biology and Biotechnology of the University of Münster; and Carla Recker, of Continental in Hanover.

“The objective of this joint project is to develop a procedure for the industrial use of dandelion as a source of rubber,” said Recker, who heads the Continental development team involved in the project. “In agricultural terms, it is an undemanding plant, even in the northern hemisphere, and can be cultivated on land not suitable for food production. This means that rubber production is conceivable near our tire factories, for instance, and the significantly shorter transport routes would also reduce CO2 emissions.”

“During our research, we have discovered which genes promote rubber production and which ones hinder it,” said Prüfer and Schulze Gronover at the award ceremony. “We were able to use this knowledge to develop plants that produce twice as much natural rubber. We also managed to extract several kilos of dandelion rubber with a small pilot system. This opened up prospects in terms of scaling up industrial production to the level of tons.”

“We are honored to receive this prestigious award for our joint project,” added Dr. Recker. “It will make tire production even more environmentally friendly, without compromising our high quality standards or losing out on performance.”

The first test tires have been tested under both summer and winter conditions. Tires made from dandelion rubber show an equivalent property profile when compared with tires made from conventional natural rubber from the rubber tree. Continental intends to launch series production of tires made from dandelion rubber in five to 10 years.

Additional information about the project is available at www.taraxagum.de.