If you find it hard to wrap your head around the idea that a shrub bearing pea-sized flowers could have anything to do with energy independence, consider guayule. This weedy little plant thrives in the arid climate of the Southwest, and it could provide the US with yet another sustainable source of domestic biofuel while also replacing petroleum as a feedstock for synthetic rubber in tire manufacturing.

We last checked in on guayule over the summer, when ARPA-E provided a grant of $5.7 million to a new partnership for developing guayule biofuel (ARPA-E is the Department of Energy’s transformative technology funding agency).

Given all the activity surrounding weedy-feedstock biofuels (camelina, much?), the biofuel angle isn’t too surprising. What’s new and different is the idea that one plant could double as a biofuel feedstock and substitute for synthetic rubber, too.

guayule for energy independence

The ARPA-E grant involves a company called Yulex, which is aside from its work in biofuels is already showing off the high performance qualities of guayule-based material with the launch of a new guayule wetsuit produced by Patagonia. The guayule wetsuit, which replaces neoprene, made its debut in Japan last December and is now available in the US.

The latest development involves […]