More than three years ago, Continental stated that rubber sourced from the Russian dandelion was of “great interest” to the company as a potential substitute for natural rubber in its tyres. It commenced a joint research project with the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology and reported a breakthrough late last year.
Now, at Continental’s press conference at the start of the IAA Commercial Vehicles show in Germany, Tire division head Nikolai Setzer has introduced the brand under which the company will market its dandelion rubber products.
“We needed a trademark from the marketing side,” he shared. “The botanical name is taraxacum, and our marketing folks came up with a great name, Taraxagum – it’s easy to retain, easy to keep in mind, and this will be the brand under which we will market and we will drive further our development and research project.”
Setzer also gave a brief update on Continental’s work with dandelion-derived rubber: “The first tyres using dandelion rubber have been made; in July we manufactured winter tyres with it.” The natural rubber in the treads of these tyres has been completely replaced with Taraxagum. “Why winter tyres? They have a high proportion of natural rubber which can be replaced with dandelion rubber.” Setzer added that the tyres are now being tested at the Contidrom proving ground near Hanover and in Arvidsjaur, Sweden. Continental is working towards industrialising dandelion rubber and introducing it to serial production within the next five to ten years.
Outlining the benefits of Russian dandelion, Setzer commented: “As it can grow close to our factory sites we are becoming less dependent upon natural rubber, which is 80 per cent sourced out of Southeast Asian countries. And supplying from close to our manufacturing sites obviously also saves on logistics costs. The use of dandelion rubber will also help meet growth in rubber demand and take the pressure off natural rubber.”
“The development process of Taraxagum has been very promising so far and we are continuing the industrialisation together with our partners,” added Dr. Andreas Topp, head of Material and Process Development and Industrialization for Tires at Continental. “We are very confident that our current research results will be confirmed through the tyre tests and that they will meet the performance targets.”