Team:SDU-Denmark/Tour20

The rubber issue

Scratching the surface of the problem

“The increasing demand for rubber and the inferior properties of synthetic rubber call for development of new innovative sources of natural rubber.“ - iGEM SDU 2013

The rubber demand is growing by 5-6% annually. At present, 40% of the global rubber demand is satisfied by natural rubber while the remaining 60% comes from synthetic rubber, and it is noteworthy that the fraction of natural rubber is increasing. The fact that synthetic rubber can’t fully mimic all the properties of natural rubber necessitates the use of natural rubber in the production of quality seals, tires, latex gloves, condoms, etc. The increasing demand for rubber and the inferior properties of synthetic rubber call for development of new innovative sources of natural rubber. Source: Tanaka, Y., & J. T. Sakdapipanich. 2001. Chemical structure and occurrence of natural polyisoprenes, p. 1-25. In T. Koyama & A. Steinbüchel (ed.), Biopolymers, vol. 2. Polyisoprenoids. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany. (Link)

The extraction of rubber from Hevea brasiliensis

The primary source of natural rubber is the rubber tree with approximately 11.3 million tons of natural rubber produced worldwide in 2012 - and the amount is increasing. Though increasing ease of modern world gene technology has given rise to high-yielding Nigerian clones, the production still requires vast amounts of plantations. Source: K.O. Omokhafe & J.E. Alika: Clonal stability of latex yield in eleven clones of Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg. Gen Mol Biol 2003, 26:313-317. (Link) and the International Rubber Study Group IRSG (Link)

These plantations need areas of distinct climate conditions. Furthermore, the tree is slow-growing and incapable of producing rubber in its first 7 years, making it difficult to establish new plantations. Source: Tanaka, Y., & J. T. Sakdapipanich. 2001. Chemical structure and occurrence of natural polyisoprenes, p. 1-25. In T. Koyama & A. Steinbüchel (ed.), Biopolymers, vol. 2. Polyisoprenoids. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany. These problems can all be solved by implementing the usage of bacteria in the production of rubber.

Dig deeper to get a glimpse of the current state of rubber production, how dark the future looks, and how bright we envision it. Or go to next chapter to learn more about our vision of a production system.