On 12 November 2025, the MIDAS project hosted the webinar, “Guayule on Marginal Lands: Building Europe’s Value Chain for Sustainable Rubber and Bio-based products”. Five partners from across the consortium presented a comprehensive look at the entire guayule value chain—from agronomy and harvesting to biorefining and final industrial use.Guayule (Parthenium argentatum) is a climate-resilient shrub that can be grown on marginal lands in Europe, representing a strategic, domestic source of natural rubber that does not compete with food crops.
This webinar brought together over 80 attendees and demonstrated the integrated MIDAS approach to developing this promising new bio-based value chain. Here are the key highlights:
The MIDAS Project Vision
The webinar began with an introduction to the MIDAS project, outlining its goal to address the European bioeconomy’s need for sustainable biomass without impacting food security. The project’s core strategy is to use climate-resilient industrial crops on marginal lands, a method that provides sustainable, non-food biomass while enhancing soil health and biodiversity. The presentation detailed the project’s two-pillar approach: first, optimizing these crops and cropping systems for marginal conditions, and second, developing resource-efficient biorefinery value chains to create innovative, bio-based products.
Slides – Marginal Land and Industrial Crops for the European Bioeconomy
Cultivation of Guayule in Spain and the MIDAS demo site managed by ITAP
Almudena Olivas del Rey (ITAP) kicked off the session by detailing the agronomic advantages of guayule. It is a perennial crop with low water and nutrient demands, making it ideal for the marginal lands MIDAS is targeting. It is also pest-resistant and non-invasive. ITAP, which maintains the largest guayule germplasm collection in Europe, is conducting several key trials. These focus on agronomic optimization for low-input agriculture , testing innovative sub-irrigation systems , and the circular use of bio-products back on the crops. A key demo site described in the presentation is a 0.5-hectare intercropping system that plants perennial guayule alongside annual crops like safflower and industrial hemp. This site exemplifies the challenging “marginality constraints” MIDAS aims to address, characterized by severe dryness, low organic matter, sandy soil, and high gypsum content.
Slides – The experience of ITAP with the industrial crop of guayule in marginal lands
Harvesting and Mechanization
Luca Cozzolino (CREA IT) tackled the critical “chicken and egg” problem of mechanization: a large-scale market is needed to justify investment in specialized machinery, but a market can’t develop without efficient harvesting. As no dedicated guayule harvester currently exists, CREA is analyzing adaptations of existing technology. A major challenge is the plant’s high resin content, which can clog machinery. While preliminary simulations show that a “Baled Whole Plant” system is the most cost-effective, both “Cut and Load” (two-step) and “Cut and Process” (direct) methods are functional. The choice of harvesting method must be driven by the end-user’s requirements. The future of harvesting will involve refining these processes to optimize for the most valuable parts—be it the rubber, the oils, or the biomass—once the guayule supply chain becomes clear.
Slides – Guayule mechanization challenges
Valorizing Co-Products
Manuel Carmona Delgado (UCLM) presented guayule as an “amazing vegetal platform” to produce compounds of industrial interest. He highlighted guayule as one of only two industrial alternatives to Hevea rubber. He noted that while extraction procedures are well-known and produce high-quality, high molecular weight rubber, the primary challenges are scaling up the process, using sustainable solvents, and conducting a full Life Cycle Assessment.
Beyond the main rubber product, the plant yields high-value co-products, including:
- Resin: Shows excellent mechanical properties for use in bio-composites, such as in the automotive or wind energy sectors.
- Bagasse: The woody biomass can be used to manufacture particleboards or as a soil amendment.
- Essential oils and compounds: Isolated compounds like Argentatins and Guayulins have shown significant promise as biopesticides and even possess anti-inflammatory and anti-tumoral properties for pharmaceutical research.
The challenge is to scale up an industrial process for any of the co-products to generate return and activate the cycle of cultivation-exploitation.
Slides – Exploitation of Guayule co-products
Scaling Europe’s First Guayule Latex Biorefinery
Michel Dorget (GuaTecs) introduced their work on scaling up Europe’s first guayule latex biorefinery. Guayule latex is hypoallergenic, solving the critical allergy problem associated with Hevea rubber, especially for medical gloves. He also provided details on the technology, showcasing the GuaTecs 1 kg/h pilot extraction unit. This TRL 6 unit, built inside a container, is the heart of their integrated biorefinery strategy. It processes the guayule biomass obtained from 6 hectares of plantations in Montpellier, to produce three distinct, high-value streams: the primary latex, along with resin and bagasse co-products. This pilot is the first step in a clear industrialization roadmap to scale up to 10 kg/h, 100 kg/h, and ultimately to 500 kg/h industrial units.
Slides – Europe’s first guayule latex – scaling the biorefinery and valorizing co-products
The Market: Industrial Need for Sustainable Materials
The webinar concluded with a panel discussion featuring Michel Dorget (GuaTecs), Adam McCarthy (Tyres Europe), and Juha Pirhonen (Nokian Tyres).
Juha Pirhonen provided the perspective of Nokian Tyres. As a premium tire manufacturer, Nokian Tyres is a leader in sustainability and is committed to an ambitious goal: 50% of all raw materials to be recycled or renewable by 2030. Natural rubber is a key ingredient, and a sustainable, European-sourced, and high-quality alternative like guayule is a highly attractive option. Building a complete, cost-effective, and scalable value chain is the final piece of the puzzle to meet this industrial demand.
Adam McCarthy strongly emphasized that while natural rubber was previously considered an EU Critical Raw Material, it is not on the current list due to technicalities in the assessment methodology. He stressed that this is a major strategic vulnerability, as Europe remains 100% import-dependent for a resource essential not only for the tire industry but for Europe’s wider economy. Therefore, he argued that stakeholders should call on the European Commission to develop a rubber strategy and to consider it again as a critical raw material. As a part of this strategy, centred on resource autonomy and the bioeconomy, we need to diversify our sources and therefore developing a domestic value chain like guayule is a crucial goal for increasing Europe’s strategic autonomy.
This point reinforced a clear consensus from all panelists:the profitability of the entire guayule value chain is dependent on the full valorization of all co-products. As the panelists noted, this integrated biorefinery model is essential to de-risk the venture for farmers, whose business case cannot rely solely on the fluctuating price of rubber. Michel Dorget also highlighted a critical policy bottleneck, noting that guayule is currently not recognized by the Common Agricultural Policy meaning farmers currently risk losing basic subsidies if they plant the crop. Juha Pirhonen reiterated that a stable, cost-competitive biomass supply is crucial for industrial adoption.
This webinar provided a complete snapshot of the progress and potential of the European guayule value chain. We thank all our partners for their insightful presentations.
You can watch the full recording of the webinar here:
