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Continental focuses on dandelions for rubber supply

Continental’s search for innovative materials has extended even as far as the humble dandelion, a plant that can be used to manufacture rubber – for tyres that are especially environmentally friendly. Materials researcher Carla Recker wants to help make the dandelion a breakthrough material.

Continental-Dandelion

The tyres themselves are black and round, just like any other “normal” tyre. The dandelions subtly embossed on the sidewalls are the only clue to the material’s origins. That, and of course the yellow-green emblem with the brand name “Taraxagum,” derived from the plant’s botanical name.
At the Continental technology centre in Stöcken in Hanover, Carla Recker gazes with pride at the tyre on display in the conference room, a tyre, which was produced just two weeks ago at the Aachen plant.

Continental-Carla-ReckerCarla, who has a doctorate in chemistry and is responsible for materials chemistry at Continental, was there in person as it was released from the mould: “Even the day before we weren’t quite sure whether it would work.” No surprise then, that Carla did not sleep much that night. For the prototype, her colleagues spent weeks extracting rubber from dandelion roots. And for months they experimented in the laboratory to find out how to use the new material to replace natural rubber from the rubber tree, which is found in every tyre alongside synthetic rubber. On top of this came a huge amount of administration work,  because Carla has been working with the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology at the University of Münster since 2007.

All the hard work has paid off and the first dandelion tyres have now “hit the streets,” even if the street in question is at this stage just Continental’s own test track. Production of the new tyre will not start before 2020 at the earliest. Carla Recker can’t hide her enthusiasm and her eyes light up as she relates one detail after another. First, some information about dandelions themselves: Through cultivation, the type of dandelion used by Continental, known as the Russian dandelion, has been modified by the Fraunhofer researchers so that it provides more sap and can be grown like a field crop.  The vision is to obtain  dandelion roots as tall as sugar beet.

This is to be achieved by growers in Bavaria and Saxony who will grow dandelions on test fields. “We’ll have to wait from growing season to growing season, and hope that between the seasons there are no floods or other catastrophes,” says the 49-year-old with a grin, who looks a lot younger than her age in jeans and sneakers. Alongside her job at Continental, Carla studied environmental technology, a subject which now stands her in good stead when suddenly confronted with biology and agriculture.