Conti's 'Taraxagum' NR project moves forward

ANKLAM, Germany — The town council of Anklam has approved Continental A.G.'s plans to establish a laboratory there for developing natural rubber derived from the Russian dandelion, and has agreed to sell Conti a 323,000-sq.-ft. plot of land for that purpose.

The tire maker announced in August plans to invest $39 million over five years toward developing the material, which it refers to as "Taraxagum." The plans include building a dedicated R&D facility in Anklam.

"We are very pleased indeed with the town council's approval of our long-term project plans," said Burkhardt Köller, chairman of Continental Reifen Deutschland G.m.b.H., Conti's German subsidiary.

The next steps, Conti said, are to acquire the plot of land in Anklam's Lilienthalring business park, get a building permit and erect the first building.

The Anklam town council, Mr. Köller said, showed its support for the "major entrepreneurial risk" by selling the company its chosen plot of land for 1 euro ($1.39).

Anklam is a town of about 14,000 located on the Baltic Sea coast near the Polish border and close to the area Conti plans to cultivate Russian dandelions for the project.

At the same time, Conti disclosed it intends to enlarge the acreage in the region devoted to growing to 1,976 acres from 37, to support growth in crop yields that can be measured in metric tons, according to Andreas Topp, who is in charge of material and process development and industrialization for tires at Continental.

"Assuming that we can successfully implement the next steps of the project as planned, we and the town of Anklam can both look forward to a bright future for our Taraxagum Lab Anklam," he added.

The Taraxagum project has been led for the past few years, by Continental and its German project partners, the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME in Münster, the Julius Kühn-Institute in Quedlinburg, and crop breeder ESKUSA, based in Parkstätten.

Saharzad Pourriahi is a reporter with European Rubber Journal, a London-based sister publication of Tire Business.