Dominic Michelin

A native of France, Dominic Michelin is earning his master’s degree in translation from the University of Paris. He chose to focus on guayule for his research paper. He shares his guayule story below in our first of several planned guest posts.

I could almost say my “affair” with guayule started unexpectedly on a sunny day in August in my centuries-old cool stony little house located in Northern Burgundy, France.

Television was on and I was, rather than watching, listening to it from afar. I suddenly caught a couple of distant words from the current report that happened to be shot in the southern French region of Montpellier. I understood something about a new experimental crop originating from somewhere in southwestern America. My attention grew and I could catch a glimpse of a small green field and a few last words about a promising new plant, the name of which I could never get as the report was drawing to an end. 

As a matter of chance, my mind had been on the watch for a while, being at the turn of a new professional life, aiming at becoming a specialized translator from English and Spanish to French, and looking for an original and specific research subject for my paper in the field of environment. I grabbed my laptop right away, and started to follow backwards the narrow path starting from the television channel site, and discovered what the report was all about.

I didn’t know yet that guayule had already cast its spell on me. From that moment, everything went quickly. I got in touch with people around the world who all seemed to be ready to share their passion and hopes about this weird little shrub so full of secrets and assets.

As I moved on along the track, I had the strange and secure feeling that I had found my new research paper subject. I couldn’t believe how this plant was unknown and famous at the same time, as I discovered its history. The more I found, the more I liked it. Be it its etymology, its origins, its checkered history, exciting present and so hopeful future, I felt I had found a new invention or discovery, likely to be part of the current century environmental and economical peaks.

Here I am today, having collected lots of documentation on guayule, met guayule fans via internet and in France, checking libraries old shelves to know more about the magical shrub I have been advertising and promoting. Since then, I have learned a lot about botany, agronomy, latex properties and rubber industry and a whole world to discover is still ahead.

Last but not least, I feel happy and honored to have been able and allowed to translate – as the most interesting part of my research paper – a substantial extract of the most recent, extensive and qualitative work done on the subject. I do hope I’ll be part of the great – hopefully best ever – revival of guayule for the 21^st century.

- Dominic Michelin

In the same way that petroleum and natural gas provided the basis for an enormous petrochemicals industry beginning over 50 years ago, living plant-based materials are being used to create a clean, bio-based chemicals industry today.

Yulex CEO Jeff Martin addresses executives at the Next Generation Bio-Based Chemicals Conference.

Martin spoke on a panel that also included companies like OPX Biotechnologies, a Boulder, Colo. startup commercializing a bio-based acrylic, and Huntsman, a Texas-based global manufacturer of chemicals, which is developing bio-based surfactants.

Martin explained to the crowd how Yulex had profitably advanced and commercialized natural rubber latex materials from guayule from its base of operations in the U.S. Southwest. He also touched on the company’s plans for expanding its production facility and expanding into Western Texas as well as Australia where it already has a foothold.

“Without natural rubber, literally the country doesn’t roll,” said Martin about the critical strategic importance of rubber in the U.S. economy.

The company’s rubber yields from guayule have grown significantly in recent years through selective breeding alone, Martin said. Now the yield per acre is on par with that of a rubber tree plantation, and Martin said a geneticist has joined the company’s team to help enhance rubber latex production through a ramped up natural breeding program. 

With 40,000 products made from natural rubber, Yulex is carefully targeting higher value products including high end sporting equipment and apparel as well as the existing medical markets it supplies. The company has achieved profitability based on its current business model, but Martin said there is value in the plant’s resins which are similar to pine resins used in many consumer and industrial products especially for adhesive applications.

Guayule biomass is also being explored as a source for biofuels. Currently, the bagasse or leftover plant material at the company’s Maricopa, Arizona facility is sold to Scott’s Miracle Gro which is able to use the product as part of its famous line of fertilizer products. However, Martin said that the bagasse could be used to generate energy for the Yulex production plant and for sale. 

Yulex currently works closely with several Arizona Indian tribes ensuring land and water is available for guayule cultivation, and Martin explained that many former cotton growers have found the switch to guayule an easy one as the planting and harvesting practices are comparable, although guayule requires less water once established. Martin described cotton as a “failing industry” in the U.S. noting that 50 years ago, there were 30 million acres of cotton growing here, and that today there is less than 9 million. Finding crops that help growers in the U.S. Southwest diversify is an additional benefit that Yulex Corp. brings to the region.

For more, see http://yulex.com.

Jim Mitchell (center) of Yulex accepts Green Innovator of the Year Award

Guayule materials got a green stamp of approval on November 19 when the Arizona Technology Council  presented Yulex Corporation with the Green Innovator of the Year award at the Governor’s Celebration of Innovation gala in Phoenix. The award is given to an Arizona-based company in the technology industry each year, and recognizes Yulex’s scientific advancements and its commitment to providing environmentally supportive and sustainable products.  

Yulex Corporation (headquartered in the Greater Phoenix area since 2007) has put the region at the epicenter of a new sustainable, made-in-the-U.S.A. industry supplying  biobased material to many different industries that make medical, consumer and industrial products. The guayule-based product can be used in everything from shoes to mattresses, cleaning products and automotive products among others.

“Receiving this award is an honor and a testament to the clean tech business the Yulex team has built in Arizona,” says Jeff Martin, President and CEO of Yulex Corporation. “We’re experiencing growing demand for Yulex® natural rubber materials from manufacturers seeking to use renewable high-performance materials for their customers while minimizing the use of petroleum-based synthetics in their product designs.”

Also see: Local company wins “green” award

With trade from Southeast Asia cut off and rubber essential to the U.S. war effort, the guayule rubber produced in Salinas became a national security issue overnight.

A key difference between guayule then and now was that in the 1940s, the guayule cultivated could only be harvested for its rubber after seven years of growth. Today, 12 to 20 months is all that’s needed for the guayule that Yulex Corporation and its partners cultivate to mature, and it’s harvested once per year with far more rubber latex produced from each plant! (To learn more about guayule’s history, visit the Guayule Timeline at Yulex.com)

It was also around World War II that U.S. scientists discovered how to make synthetic rubber from petroleum-based materials, and once the war ended, the U.S. focused on synthetic rubber and latex as the primary alternative to natural, imported sources. As Jim Albanese writes in his ‘Wayback Machine’ column in The Salinas Californian:

“In 1945, the last year of the war, 1,628 acres of guayule were harvested in the Salinas Valley. An additional 7,429 acres were planted but never harvested. Those plants were subsequently destroyed.

If only we’d had a little more faith and patience with guayule. Today, the humble plant is a godsend to medical professionals and patients, offering its juices to provide nonallergenic gloves and other equipment.”

Too true, Jim, but it’s not just medical patients and latex allergy sufferers who have embraced guayule today. It has also been discovered by the manufacturers of everyday consumer products. Specifically, they’ve discovered its benefits as a safe, renewable material over synthetic petroleum-based materials.

And from that perspective, at least one thing hasn’t changed: guayule is still being used to save the planet.