Project to Grow a New Rubber Source

GUAYULE, a desert shrub, is a promising and sustainable domestic crop.

KIM OGDEN, chair of the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, is leading a collaboration to develop a new variety of natural rubber from a source that is more sustainable and can be grown in the forbidding conditions of the arid Southwest.

Ogden is principal investigator on a $70 million, five-year project focused on growing and processing guayule (pronounced why-OO-lee), a hardy, perennial shrub that could be an alternative source of natural rubber.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture granted $35 million for the project, with an equal match from Bridgestone Americas Inc., the tire and rubber company, to help growers transition to guayule crops from their traditional rotations of hay, cotton and wheat.

Additional partners on the project include the Colorado River Indian Tribes, Colorado State University, regional growers and OpenET, a publicprivate partnership that facilitates responsible water management.

Bridgestone has been working with guayule in Arizona since 2012 at the company’s 280-acre farm in Eloy, about halfway between Phoenix and Tucson.

KBridgestone plans to expand the farm to 20,000 acres in the next several years by working with Native American farmers to grow guayule on tribal lands, and with other area farmers.

Why Guayule?

Rubber is currently sourced from a single species –Hevea brasiliensis, or the Pará rubber tree – grown almost exclusively in Southeast Asia.

Having a single source for rubber globally means the supply of this critical material can be precarious and subject to market volatility. The Pará rubber tree crop is susceptible to disease, particularly leaf fall disease. In addition, the price of rubber is affected by increasing labor costs, and there is the potential for geopolitical disorder, Ogden said.

“The goal for Bridgestone and for the other tire companies is to find reliable, domestic sources of rubber.”

Climate- and MarketSmart Solution

The grant will fund the development and refinement of growing guayule with climate-smart practices, Ogden said.

“We want to use less water, install irrigation systems to avoid flood irrigation, use less fertilizer and educate the growers,” she said. “If you’re looking at a big system lifecycle assessment, this is going to cut down on greenhouse gases.” sequestration. In addition, guayule has natural properties that deter insects, so no insecticides are needed once the plants reach early maturity.

As promising as guayule is as a source of natural rubber, producing the rubber alone is not economically viable, so Ogden is working to find additional products that could be derived from guayule resin and biomass, which would be marketed to supplement the revenues from manufacturing rubber products.

“There is a big risk, as well as supply chain problems, when you have all the natural rubber coming from one region of the world,” Ogden said.

Unlike annual crops, which require tilling the land every time the crops are planted or harvested, guayule is perennial. That makes no-till and low-till farming a viable practice, and it’s one method of storing carbon dioxide in the soil rather than the air, which is known as carbon

“Finding research-based solutions that have a global impact is an ideal expression of the University of Arizona’s mission,” said University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins. “I am grateful to our partners at Bridgestone and the USDA for their investment in Dr. Ogden’s expertise. I look forward to seeing new, sustainable tires on the road soon, knowing the University of Arizona helped get them there.”

ANTI-SNORING PROJECT EXCITES AT DESIGN DAY 2023

Engineering students competed for $47,000 in prizes, with projects ranging from the winning Snorpheus to a BattleBot and a system for a swarm of aquatic drones.

AAT THIS YEAR’S Craig M. Berge Design Day, 99 teams of seniors completed projects requested by industry and university sponsors, competing for $47,000 in prizes. The $7,500 top prize, the Craig M. Berge Dean’s Award for Most Outstanding Project, went to Team 23078 for Snorpheus. The wearable device records sleeper data to guide treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA.

The device provides valuable information about the snoring and sleeping positions of those who suffer from OSA, helping clinicians recommend the best therapy. Based on the information, clinicians might work with patients to sleep in different positions or use oral implants that reshape the mouth. Both treatments prevent snoring, which leads to OSA, and are permanent solutions that address the root cause of illness. In contrast, CPAP therapy only addresses symptoms, said team member Nisha Rajakrishna, a biomedical engineering major.

OSA is a disease in itself, and it can be implicated in medical conditions such as stroke and hypertension, she said.

“By getting ahead of the issue through our diagnostic tool, we prevent snoring, prevent OSA, prevent serious medical conditions from continuing,” said Rajakrishna, who is headed to medical school at University of Michigan after she completes a year-long research project.

Snorpheus was one of several health-related projects that impressed the judges and are “more complete, further along the design cycle and closer to commercialization,” said biomedical engineering alum Vina Nguyen, who works for W.L. Gore and Associates.

A few such projects were noted by Nguyen’s coworker and fellow judge Tyler Brown, a mechanical engineering alum and judge.

“They were able to directly affect patients’ lives in a positive way, and they’re so close to being able to be used in real life because of the prototyping and testing the teams had already done,” he said.

One was Team 23030’s Novel Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training Device, which won both Gore’s $1,250 Award for Lifelong Innovation and the

Rincon Research Award for Best Presentation at $1,500. The team developed a respiratory training system, a handheld device that provides live user feedback, to reduce blood pressure.

Helping and Family

In addition to helping people through medical advances, family was a prominent theme this year. The college’s four-year design program, as well as Design Day, are named for Craig M. Berge. An engineering alum and longtime supporter, Berge died in 2017. His widow, Nancy Berge, and daughter, Barbara Berge Campbell, were honored guests at this year’s event and helped present the first-place award.

“Craig and Nancy are proud alums of this university. Craig was an amazing engineer, and I know he would be fascinated to see what’s been accomplished thanks to his family’s generosity,” said David W. Hahn, the Craig M. Berge Dean of the college.

Nancy Berge said it was wonderful to attend in person and hear from students about their projects.

“It’s thrilling to see the students so excited,” she said. “Everyone is just filled with gratitude. That makes it even nicer.”

One grateful student was Snorpheus’ team lead Logan Deane, a biomedical engineering major, who also won one of two project leadership awards.

“I could not have gotten a better team. They’ve basically become my family throughout this,” she said.

‘Today Is the Day’

“Today is the day where all of your designs came together,” Hahn told the students as he opened the awards ceremony. “Today we have a chance to recognize all your wonderful accomplishments.”

Awards went to a wide variety of projects, including Team 23037 for its BattleBot, a 250-pound combat robot that earned the $2,500 L3Harris Commercial Aviation Solutions

Award for Most Robust Systems Engineering. The team is in the process of auditioning for the BattleBots television show. The students had two Destruct-a-Thon tryout battles at the BattleBots Arena in Las Vegas just after Craig M. Berge Design Day. They won both, increasing their chances of being selected for a televised battle. The team also laid the foundation for the new Wildcat Robotics club, inspiring future engineering students to get in the arena.

“In 35 years at the University of Arizona, this is probably the most impressive group of undergrads that I’ve worked with. What they accomplished in one academic year is remarkable,” said team advisor and Regents Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Michael Marcellin. “Even if they hadn’t won the fight, I would have said that.”

Garnering the $1,000 IEEE Tucson Section Award for Best Use and Implementation of Engineering Standards was Team 23077’s AQUABOT Aquatic Drone Coordination, Communication and Control system. The AQUABOT serves as proof of concept for a drone system to monitor ocean health and remove plastics.