The EU-funded DRIVE4EU project, which aims to reduce dependence on rubber imports from Southeast Asia by optimizing rubber extraction from the Russian dandelion, is preparing to harvest a crop of dandelions bred to have triple the amount of rubber in their roots as wild dandelions. According to Horizon Magazine, industrial machines are being built specifically for this harvest. The fiber inulin will also be extracted to maximize coproduct and profitability.
“There’s lots of inulin in these plants, 40% of the dry weight in fact,” says Dr. Ingrid van der Meer, of Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, which is conducting the research. “For now, a hectare of rubber dandelion grows around 200 kg of rubber, but the target for the project is 900 kg. ‘In future I think we will see larger dandelion farms. It won’t need the best agricultural fields either and it can be rotated with other crops.”
The EU currently imports the majority of its natural rubber from Southeast Asia, where a fungal disease is threatening to damage the region’s plantations.
A separate EU project is eyeing yellow tuft alyssum as a source of nickel. The plant is a “hyperaccumulator” of nickel, yielding as much as 100 kg of the metal per hectare. It is commonly found in the Balkans and Turkey, growing in soil that is largely infertile but contains high concentrations of nickel. Dr. Guillaume Echevarria from the Université de Lorraine is coordinating the EU-funded project, called AGRONICKEL. “We want to integrate these hyperaccumulating metal crops into the farming system,” he said. “The idea is that farmers would get more money out of a nickel crop than they would from wheat or maize grown on these poor soils.”
The EU produces 6% of the world’s nickel supply, but consumes 18%.