Vipal Rubber constantly invests in technology applied to ecological products and solutions. This is the case of a research that studies the possibility of using the rice husk residue  as a raw material for the rubber industry, the result of a partnership between Vipal, the University of Caxias do Sul, in Brazil, and Lodz Poland University of Technology.

One of the participants in this initiative is the Material and Chemistry Engineer, Mrs Suélen Moresco, from Vipal's Research team, , who recently won an award in the category Industry Researcher due to the set of studies focused, for example, on the development of sustainable technological products and processes. Suélen points out that the remainder of the rice production is used as fuel for thermoelectric power plants and from this energy generation there is still the ashes from the burning of the residue, object of study of the Vipal project, which foresees the treatment of this by-product.

The research is still at the stage of internal laboratory validation and should go on to tests at the factory. The patent application for the process has already been filed by Vipal and the participating universities. According to the researcher, in addition to providing an appropriate destination for the waste, one of the advantages of using rice husk ash, is to diversify the raw materials within the rubber chain.