Guayule Blog

TechDevice Corp. has introduced minimally invasive medical balloons made out of guayule. Medical Product Manufacturing News calls this a BREAKTHROUGH because now balloon catheters with desirable characteristics such as tensile strength and durability are available without the hevea latex health risk. See the article here. 

The first medical device made from guayule natural rubber has just been cleared to market by the FDA. This is very exciting news for individuals with latex allergies and medical institutions becoming latex-safe! Soon we’ll be seeing guayule catheters, guayule dental dams, guayule everything. Here’s one article I found about the 510(k) clearance from the United Press International.

U.S. states are implementing mandates that require utility companies to use power from alternative means. For example, utilities regulated by the Arizona Corporation Commission in Arizona will have to get 1.7 percent of their power from alternative means in 2008. By 2025, 15 percent of power needs to be supplied by alternative means. See the recent article on the mandates and how guayule could be a source for Arizona utility companies here.

Prize Capital has announced that it’s developing an innovation contest called the Biofuels Prize for small-scale decentralized renewable energy: “The Biofuels Prize will encourage innovators to develop the new technologies necessary to produce biofuels in methods that do not compete with food crops for land and water, do not encourage deforestation and do not exclude small holders, developing and rural economies.”

 You can register for details and updates on the contest at www.prizecapital.net.

Time Magazine takes on ethanol in this week’s cover story: The Clean Energy Scam. The article opens with a bird’s eye view over the Amazon rain forest as ranchers and farmers are doubling deforestation this year because biofuels have jacked up global crop prices. But, the Amazon is a storehouse for carbon and deforestation only accelerates global warming. Experts are calling it the ’savannization’ of the Amazon. It’s sad, but in this environment–no pun intended–the case for biofuels from an arid desert crop, guayule, is only made more compelling and urgent. Check out this story here:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1725975,00.html