In a Manufacturing First, Innovative Material is Grown by Fungi

January 5th, 2012 by Susan Kraemer

Normally manufacturers must rush their products off the assembly line, but EcovativeDesign has a novel approach. They just wait, up to week, and let mycelium do the manufacturing work to construct everything from insulation to packaging materials.

In a completely new way to make stuff, they let mycelium – a fungal network of threadlike cells – grow the material by combining itself with agricultural byproducts like plant stalks and seed husks. Mycelium is like the “roots” of mushrooms. In 5 – 7 days, in the dark, with no water, and no petrochemical inputs, the mycelium digests the agricultural byproducts.

Once the mycelium has bound the agricultural waste, then a quick heat-drying treatment at the end halts the organic growth, resulting in a stable, strong, waterproof structural material.

Over the last ten thousand years, we humans have put many plants and animals to work for our ends, but it is likely that this marks the first manufacturing work by the kingdom of fungi.

Because the mycelium acts like a natural, self assembling glue, it can replace the toxic adhesives like formaldehyde that hold particle board together, and any of the uses for styrofoam and other packaging materials could be replaced by this fungi-grown stuff.

Here’s the work flow:

Truckloads of agricultural byproducts arrive from regional farms.
Several types of farm waste are stored in large hoppers and then mixed in different ratios to meet specified material properties.
A patented continuous steam pasteurization system cleans the crop wastes of any mold or bacterial contamination that may have come from the field.
The pasteurized substrate is inoculated with mycelium, and molded into a form.
These forms are loaded into pallet racks, and growth occurs indoors for about a week.
Lastly, the parts are popped out and dried in order to deactivate the growth.
Finished parts are shipped to customers.

Although just starting up, this is not some small scale cottage industry either. Because of the promise of this novel approach, 3M is working to help the founders scale up their process. Their materials are protecting NOAA’s scientific buoys during deployment.

Their in-house testing facilities can give results for

Compressive strength and elastic modulus
Tensile strength and elastic modulus
Flexural strength and elastic modulus
Face shear
Planer shear
Thermal conductivity
Thermal diffusivity
Specific heat
Environmental aging from -50ºC to 190ºC, relative humidity from 0-95%
Water sorption
Drop testing: cushioning and resilience
Screw hold test
Fatigue testing
Creep testing

They can custom design and produce shapes needed to order. It can grow itself into whatever shape is desired, in a mould. First you can get a sample of this strange new material to see if it will work for your needs. Almost any business that ships things could use such a sustainable alternative to the usual toxic resource-depleting packaging materials.

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Tags: Ecovative Design, green manufacturing, green packaging, particle board, styrofoam

About the Author

Susan Kraemer writes at CleanTechnica, CSP-Today, PV-Insider , SmartGridUpdate, and GreenProphet. She has also been published at Ecoseed, NRDC OnEarth, MatterNetwork, Celsius, EnergyNow, and Scientific American. As a former serial entrepreneur in product design, Susan brings an innovator's perspective on inventing a carbon-constrained civilization: If necessity is the mother of invention, solving climate change is the mother of all necessities! As a lover of history and sci-fi, she enjoys chronicling the strange future we are creating in these interesting times. Follow Susan on Twitter @dotcommodity.

No

That would mean that the mycelium would need food. Food is expensive.
http://twitter.com/RexScientiarum Eccentric scientist

These guys have actually been around for a few years. I am still waiting for their SIPs to come to market, THAT sounds promising. Build houses and buildings out of fungus, this is the future.
- http://muckrack.com/dotcommodity Susan Kraemer
  
  Yeah, it was in my research for a greenbuilding site that I ran across them – their SIPs would be like 1000 % green, wouldn’t they? It seems there is a big need for little pieces as well, as so much packaging needs protection, but I hope they continue to work on getting SIPs going
George P Williams

How do you dispose of the stuff? Is it recyclable?
- Guest
  
  I would imagine it would compost quite well.
- http://muckrack.com/dotcommodity Susan Kraemer
  
  Interesting question, yeah.. nothing artificial, all vegetable matter suggests composting is ok, even after the heat treatment that stops the fungi action itself
Anonymous

Sweet!