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.

“Recent rubber price increases generally have stuck because customers really don’t have any other choices, said Bill Hyde, director of C4 olefins and elastomers for Houston-based Chemical Marketing Associates Inc.

Producers have been able to push through some substantial increases, and no one rubber producer is exposed more than another because they’re all exposed to cost-push and feedstock limitation issues, he said.

While there is more natural rubber available compared to synthetic rubber—which is experiencing some record highs in pricing—NR prices are actually higher, Hyde said. With the tightness of supply in North America, importing SBR would seem to be a viable alternative, except that supply in regions like Asia is even tighter and the prices are higher.

In the case of highly engineered rubber products, where the specifications are tight, manufacturers really can’t move back and forth on materials, Hyde said.

“There’s a widespread shortage of synthetic rubber,” he said. “Polybutadiene and SBR producers have been allocating 50-90 percent of contract levels since February here in the U.S. In the short term, there aren’t a lot of other options.””

• Manufacturers, medical institutions, shippers, and the end-user are all suffering from the rising costs and reduced availability of raw materials. Speculators have now found rubber so are having the same undesirable affect as they have had on petroleum.
• An economist from the International Rubber Study Group indicated a serious but temporary shortfall in rubber and latex supplies will start in 2010. During this time, prices will rise even further.
• On average, the EU and USA use approximately 100 gloves per person per year.
• Attendees were excited about guayule latex and manufacturing gloves in the U.S.

Industry experts are concerned about the increasing price of rubber prices.

A good article about the history of rubber and possibility of leaf blight devastating the U.S. is by ethnobotanist Wade Davis here.