Natural Rubber, a Green Commodity

In recent years there has been a growing awareness about global warming and its possible consequences. This naturally leads to the search for materials and processes which are environmentally friendly. While rubber products are essential to maintain the present quality of human life, a major part of the elastomer requirement is presently met by synthetic materials. In this context, an appreciation of the green credentials of natural rubber vis-a-vis its synthetic counterparts is highly desirable. 

The energy input, other than solar energy, for NR production is only 15-16 GJ per tonne, while it ranges from 108-174 in the case of synthetic rubbers [67]. 

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B van Beilen, and Y. Poirier, Establishment of new crops for the production of natural rubber, Trends in Biotechnology 25(11), Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2007. (www.sciencedirect.com). 

Buranov Anvar and B.J. Elmuradov, Extraction and characterisation of latex and natural rubber from rubber bearing plants, /. Agric. Food Chem. 58(2), 2010 (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). 

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