Page 57 - TBN-2014-4

Continental Dandelion Rubber Wins GreenTec Award
Continental and the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME) at the University of Münster were hon- oured with the GreenTec Award 2014 for their co- development project ‘RUBIN – Industrial Emergence of Natural Rubber from Dandelion’.
A 60-member jury panel consisting of experts from industry, academia, trade associations, and the media considered this project to be an outstanding example of commitment to the environment and pio- neering environmental technology in the category ‘Automobility’.
The award ceremony was held on May 4th in Munich at the start of IFAT, the world’s leading trade fair for environmental technology. The GreenTec Awards, of which there are 14 different categories, are Europe’s biggest environmental and business awards and were first presented in 2008.
"We are very pleased to receive this award for our dandelion rubber project. Continental is pushing a very promising technology whose full potential will fully unfold in the next few years. In view of increas- ing levels of motorisation in growth markets such as Asia, we expect a major increase in demand for nat- ural rubber in the future. We are convinced that the use of rubber from dandelion root will make our tyre production considerably more efficient and sustain- able," said Nikolai Setzer, Member of the Executive Board of Continental and Head of Tyre Division.
Continental and IME are currently working on the in- dustrial use of Russian dandelion, which is said to be very rubber-rich and does not need a tropical climate in contrast to regular rubber trees. This undemand- ing plant can be cultivated in a number of temperate regions on what is known as ‘marginal land’ that was previously unusable in terms of agriculture.
"Dandelion rubber will shorten transport routes to our production sites and enable the growing global demand for rubber to be met without sacrificing more precious areas of rainforest. Both these factors will have a sustainably positive effect on the world’s car- bon footprint and on bio-diversity," added Dr Andreas Topp, Vice President Material and Process Develop- ment and Industrialisation Tyres at Continental
Dr Carla Recker, Project Manager of the Continental Tyre Division, received the award together with Pro- fessor Dirk Prüfer of the Fraunhofer IME in Munich in front of 1000 guests from the worlds of business, sport and entertainment.
Project Manager Dr Carla Recker (Continental) and Professor Dirk Prüfer (Fraunhofer Institute) receive the European environment prize ‘GreenTec Award 2014’ for the ‘RUBIN’ project, which enables rubber obtained from the dandelion plant to be used for tyre production.
马牌蒲公英橡胶赢得绿色科技奖
马牌与明斯特大学(University of Münster) 的弗劳 恩霍夫分子生物学和应用生态学研究所(IME)的合作 项目RUBIN—工业崛起的蒲公英天然橡胶，荣获2014年 绿色科技大奖。
由60名来自业界、学术、贸易协会及媒体组成的评审团一致 认为，该项目是立志于环保，“汽车用途”类别中的环保科 技先锋。
该颁奖仪式是在慕尼黑全球环保技术领先贸易展--IFAT一开始就 举行。这个于2008年第一次颁发的绿色科技大奖共分为14种不同 的类别，是欧洲最大的环保和商业奖。
“我们很开心我们的蒲公英橡胶项目能够获奖。 马牌正在推动一 个充满前途的技术，此技术的潜能会在未来的几年里显露出来。 有鉴于成长市场如亚洲不断提高的机动性，我们预期天然胶的未 来需求将会大大提高。我们深信从蒲公英根中提取的橡胶，会大 幅度提高我们轮胎产量的效率和可持续性。”马牌轮胎部主任兼 董事泽茨(Nikolai Setzer)表示。
马牌和IME正在着手研究俄罗斯蒲公英的工业应用，据说该种蒲 公英的橡胶含量非常丰富，而且不像一般橡胶树必须在热带的气 候中才能生长。这些没有需求量的植物，能够被种植于不适合农 耕，温度不同的贫瘠土地上。
“蒲公英橡胶可缩短生产现场的运输路线，而且能在不牺牲宝贵 的热带雨林区域下，应付全球不断增长的橡胶需求。这些因素可 为世界的碳足迹和生物多角化带来持续的正面影响。”马牌原料 及轮胎工艺开发与工业化副总裁托普博士(Dr. Andreas Topp) 表示。
马牌轮胎部瑞尔可博士(Dr. Carla Recker)项目经理和IME普 里尔教授(Dirk Prüfer)在1千名商业、运动及娱乐嘉宾的见证 下，接过该奖项。
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