New Research Center Seeks to Develop Domestic Rubber Production
Natural rubber is a crucial material with limited – and therefore vulnerable – sources
Caltech is joining a multi-institution effort to develop domestic sources of natural rubber—a crucial material that is often irreplaceable by synthetic alternatives.
Dubbed the Transformation of American Rubber through Domestic Innovation for Supply Security (TARDISS) Engineering Research Center (ERC), the $26 million National Science Foundation (NSF)–funded initiative will be led by Ohio State University with partners that include Caltech, North Carolina State University, Texas Tech University, UC Merced, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Case Western Reserve University as well as industry, educational, and technical organizations.
"We are very excited for Caltech to serve as a full partner in TARDISS and look forward to the innovations that are made possible by this important ERC research program," says Harry Atwater, the Otis Booth Leadership Chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science.
TARDISS aims to promote the development of alternative natural rubber production from plants that can be grown in the United States, including guayule, a plant native to the desert Southwest; certain species of dandelion; and mountain gum. If successful, TARDISS could fundamentally shift the natural rubber supply chain from one where the U.S. relies on crops grown on plantations overseas to one where the nation can produce its own rubber products.
"Right now, more than 90 percent of all the world's rubber is grown in an area of Southeast Asia that is smaller than Ohio," says Julia A. Kornfield, the Elizabeth W. Gilloon Professor of Chemical Engineering and a principal investigator of TARDISS. "It's grown on plantations where the plants are all clones, like bananas. The entire system is incredibly vulnerable to drought or disease."
Natural rubber is required for applications ranging from medical devices, such as breathing tubes, to airplane tires and automotive engine belts. Any disruption in the supply chain of rubber – which happened in 2019, when 10 percent of the supply was lost to disease – can cause disruption to economies around the world
At Caltech, Kornfield will be collaborating with Chiara Daraio, the G. Bradford Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Physics, and Gözde Demirer, the Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering. Together, they will develop tools for genetic engineering of plants in the hopes of creating a locally growable alternative to the rubber tree that is capable of producing a commercially viable quantity and quality of rubber.
More broadly, the research could help influence how all sorts of materials are produced from plants going forward – tweaking their genetic code to grow all sorts of useful supplies.
"I love thinking about a future where we convert sunlight to materials on farms. It's potentially enormously efficient. These plants can be made to produce things like medicines and fragrances at the same time that they're making natural rubber. I mean, it really could be absolutely earth shattering," says Kornfield.
The first round of funding from the NSF will last for five years at $26 million, with the ability to renew for an additional $26 million for the next five years.