Mechanized Sunflower Leaf Harvest for Rubber Extraction

Natural rubber is an essential manufacturing material that possesses performance properties that are superior to synthetic rubber for many product applications. Aircraft tires, for example, are made of natural rubber; whereas, synthetic rubber (less expensive to procure) is used for less demanding products. However, natural rubber production is limited to a single species (rubber tree) in a limited geographic area (Southeast Asia), concentrations that have enabled leaf fungus to spread in rubber plantations and negatively impact NR production. Producing rubber from another commercial crop such as sunflower would greatly reduce the probability of a supply disruption and potentially make the U.S. independent of imported natural rubber. Sunflower currently accumulates rubber in its leaves at 1-2% of dry weight. For sunflower to become a commercially viable source of rubber, this level must be increased at least 3-fold. Edison has already engineered sunflower to accumulate more rubber and has developed a computational genomics-driven molecular breeding program. At the completion of this Phase I, we will have shown how existing commercially-available harvest equipment can be used to harvest sunflower leaves, helping speed the rubber extraction and characterization portions of the sunflower rubber program. The observations and data obtained in Phase I will then be applied in Phase II to provide actual grower opportunities in the scale-up of this important crop. These efforts will directly benefit the U.S. military, U.S. farmers, and U.S. manufacturing.