Skip to main content

Breaking News

Breaking News
Cooper expects JV plant in Vietnam to be producing truck tires by ‘early 2020'
Close
Sister Publication Links
  • Rubber & Plastics News
  • European Rubber Journal
tb-logo
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • AUTO INDUSTRY
    • BUSINESS/FINANCIAL
    • COMMERCIAL TIRE
    • FACTORY FIXES
    • GOVERNMENT & LAW
    • INTERNATIONAL
    • MOTOR SPORTS
    • NEW PRODUCTS
    • RETAIL TIRES
    • SERVICE ZONE
    • SEMA/AAPEX
    • SMALL BUSINESS
    • TIRE MAKERS
    • SPONSORED CONTENT
    • USMCA moving forward; garners industry support
      Yokohama garners 2 OE fitments on Porsche Cayenne SUV
      ADAS presents challenges, opportunities for aftermarket
      New check valve may cure Saturn's heating woes
    • F1 teams vote to stick with 2019-spec tire for 2020 season
      Icahn Enterprises issuing $750 million in senior notes, due in 2027
      USMCA moving forward; garners industry support
      Yokohama garners 2 OE fitments on Porsche Cayenne SUV
    • China's LongMarch inks deal with Servis Tyre for Pakistan TBR venture
      Yokohama launches 114R UWB regional-haul trailer tire
      Denray Tire converts retread to Michelin RT process in western Canada
      Dunlop Aircraft Tyres evaluating Indonesia as potential manufacturing site
    • USMCA moving forward; garners industry support
      Cooper recalling 163 Avon-brand motorcycle tires
      S.C. targeting illegal tire dumps via 'See it/Report it' campaign
      USTMA calls on all stakeholders to help raise scrap tire recovery rate
    • F1 teams vote to stick with 2019-spec tire for 2020 season
      USMCA moving forward; garners industry support
      Yokohama garners 2 OE fitments on Porsche Cayenne SUV
      Goodyear trialing European online retail platform in Germany
    • F1 teams vote to stick with 2019-spec tire for 2020 season
      Hankook to supply German touring car series' DTM Trophy ‘feeder series'
      Americas Rallycross folds after 2 seasons
      Australia's Supercars series renews tire supply deal with Goodyear/Dunlop through 2024
    • Mitchell 1 SocialCRM offers online appointment feature
      Yokohama launches 114R UWB regional-haul trailer tire
      Conti offering ag tire pressure/load calculating app
      Sentury custom Jeep highlights Landsail Rogueblazer tires
    • Icahn Enterprises issuing $750 million in senior notes, due in 2027
      RNR Tire honors breast cancer survivor
      Sullivan Tire Wholesale expands in New England
      Pep Boys celebrates reopening of storm-ravaged Fla. location
    • Pep Boys celebrates reopening of storm-ravaged Fla. location
      ADAS presents challenges, opportunities for aftermarket
      New check valve may cure Saturn's heating woes
      Marinucci: Lamp check and interim diagnostic deadline method
    • TIA opens application period for Michelin/TIA Scholarship
      ADAS presents challenges, opportunities for aftermarket
      Sentury custom Jeep highlights Landsail Rogueblazer tires
      view gallery
      25 photos
      Photos: A look back at 2019 SEMA, APPEX Shows
    • NFIB holding webinar Dec. 4 on new federal overtime rule
      Tennessee couple named Milex franchisees of the year
      Fight the battles to win the war
      Industry challenges stubbornly persist decades later
    • Yokohama launches 114R UWB regional-haul trailer tire
      Sentury custom Jeep highlights Landsail Rogueblazer tires
      USTMA calls on all stakeholders to help raise scrap tire recovery rate
      Apollo enters Saudi Arabian market via tie-in with local distributor
  • Opinion
  • Multimedia
    • VIDEOS
    • PHOTOS
    • PODCASTS
  • Events
    • LIVESTREAMS
    • WEBINARS
    • SEMA LIVESTREAMS
  • Data
    • DATA STORE
    • DIRECTORY
  • ADVERTISE
  • Classifieds
  • DIGITAL EDITION
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
May 25, 2015 01:00 AM

Technical challenges for NR alternative

Miles Moore
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print

    HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C.—An alternative, sustainable domestic source of natural rubber (NR) may be as little as a decade away, thanks to intensive research by Bridgestone Americas.

    A Bridgestone Americas executive made that prediction at the 31st annual Clemson University Global Tire Industry Conference in Hilton Head.

    Bill Niaura, Bridgestone Americas director of new business development, provided an update on his company's efforts to commercialize guayule, a desert shrub native to Mexico and the southwestern U.S.

    “Developing guayule on a commercial basis is a huge challenge,” he told conference attendees.

    “There is no existing U.S. natural rubber industry. We are starting on that journey, and there are technical challenges that need to be addressed.”

    Bridgestone Americas dedicated the Bridgestone Biorubber Process Research Center in Mesa, Ariz., last September, about a year after it opened its Agro Operation Guayule Research Farm in Eloy, Ariz.

    The farm provides rubber for the pilot guayule processing plant at the research center, with pilot-scale guayule rubber production planned for this year.

    Bridgestone is developing guayule because NR sourcing as it exists now is a chancy enterprise, according to Mr. Niaura.

    “Natural rubber is our single largest raw material purchase, accounting for more than 25 percent,” he said.

    “But it has a poor business model as far as supply is concerned. Hevea trees are cloned, genetically identical plants, genetically susceptible to the same diseases.”

    The narrow geographic distribution of Hevea threatens supply instability due to political unrest, climate change and an uneven supply-demand balance. “It's a market-based commodity that has a huge impact on profitability in a low-margin business,” he said.

    There are more than 2,000 plants besides Hevea that produce rubber latex, but by far the most promising are guayule and the Russian dandelion, according to Mr. Niaura.

    While both guayule and Russian dandelions are promising NR sources, Bridgestone believes guayule is the better bet, he said, because the tire maker has a history with the cultivation of guayule, and lots of data on the shrub.

    “Also, there's a problem with dandelions—how do you keep weeds out?” he asked.

    Guayule has been harvested in the U.S. since pre-Columbian times, when Native Americans chewed its sap to make balls for their games, according to Mr. Niaura.

    At the turn of the 20th century, several companies along the Rio Grande harvested wild guayule for rubber. However, the wild plants were depleted rapidly, and the beginning of the Mexican Revolution forced the guayule companies to close.

    There was some production of guayule rubber in California and Arizona in the 1920s by a company called Intercontinental Rubber Co., Mr. Niaura said. But the biggest guayule project before the 1980s was the Emergency Rubber Project during World War II, when government researchers planted 32,000 acres of the shrub in Arizona and Texas, he said.

    Unfortunately, that acreage was disked under when the war ended because the government decided to back the development of synthetic rubber instead.

    Mr. Niaura said that was probably an unfortunate decision.

    He called NR “an indispensable material,” adding, “Our industry has been trying since World War II to reproduce it synthetically, but we haven't succeeded.”

    Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., the predecessor of Bridgestone Americas, gained major experience with guayule when it joined the U.S. Department of Defense and the Gila River Indian Community in a guayule development project in Sacaton, Ariz., in the 1980s.

    “Gila River was the basis of the data showing the validity of guayule as a viable alternative source of natural rubber,” Mr. Niaura said.

    Bridgestone's research into the guayule plant concentrates on plant genetics, process quality and rubber yield, he said.

    Because different guayule strains are so diverse—the plant can reproduce both sexually and asexually, depending on variety—plant breeding is especially difficult, according to Mr. Niaura.

    Yet this diversity assures the vitality and resilience of the guayule plant.

    Guayule is only 5 percent latex by weight, so he said Bridgestone must concentrate on finding markets for the shrub's pine tar-like resins and the bagasse, or woody part of the plant, to make it commercially viable.

    “We have to find the best value for those products. Energy is the low-hanging fruit, either for someone else's use or onsite. It's easy to do, but rather low on the profitability rung.”

    Using guayule bagasse and resins to make composite boards is a promising application, according to Mr. Niaura. “Termites will starve before they eat boards like that.”

    Firestone Natural Rubber Co., the branch of Bridgestone Americas that runs the company's Hevea plantation in Liberia, has no involvement in the guayule program, Mr. Niaura said. Bridgestone is not considering the creation of anything like a guayule plantation, but instead hopes to attract independent farmers to grow the crop.

    “Guayule agriculture is feasible, but it's a lot of work to turn it into a true agribusiness,” he said.

    “A lot of hard labor is involved in growing the crop, but it yields a free-flowing latex that is easy to collect.”

    The various challenges in developing guayule means it will be the 2020s at the earliest before it's used for tires in wide distribution, according to Mr. Niaura. Bridgestone's ultimate goal, however, is to replace 30 percent of the Hevea content in its tires with guayule rubber, he said.

    Related Articles
    Cooper demo bolsters guayule use in tires
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Tire Business would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor Don Detore at [email protected].

    SIGN UP FOR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Newsletter Center

    Staying current is easy with Tire Business delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    SUBSCRIBE TODAY

    Subscribe to Tire Business

    SUBSCRIBE
    Connect with Us
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • RSS

    Our Mission

    Tire Business is an award-winning publication dedicated to providing the latest news, data and insights into the tire and automotive service industries.

    tb-logo
    Reader Services
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • Site Map
    • Industry Sites
    • Order Reprints
    • Customer Service: 877-320-1716
    Partner Sites
    • Rubber & Plastics News
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Automotive News
    • Autoweek
    • Plastics News
    • Plastics & Rubber World
    • Plastics News Europe
    • Plastics News China
    • Urethanes Technology
    • LSR World
    RESOURCES
    • Advertise
    • Classified
    • Wholesale Tire Directory
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Media Guide
    • Ad Rates/Specs
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Clasified Rates
    • List Rental
    • Digital Edition
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    Copyright © 1996-2019. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • AUTO INDUSTRY
      • BUSINESS/FINANCIAL
      • COMMERCIAL TIRE
      • FACTORY FIXES
      • GOVERNMENT & LAW
      • INTERNATIONAL
      • MOTOR SPORTS
      • NEW PRODUCTS
      • RETAIL TIRES
      • SERVICE ZONE
      • SEMA/AAPEX
      • SMALL BUSINESS
      • TIRE MAKERS
      • SPONSORED CONTENT
    • Opinion
    • Multimedia
      • VIDEOS
      • PHOTOS
      • PODCASTS
    • Events
      • LIVESTREAMS
      • WEBINARS
      • SEMA LIVESTREAMS
    • Data
      • DATA STORE
      • DIRECTORY
    • ADVERTISE
    • Classifieds
    • DIGITAL EDITION