Mycelium Composites: A Review of Engineering Characteristics and Growth Kinetics

Jones, Mitchell P.; Huynh, Tien; Dekiwadia, Chaitali; Daver, Fügen; John, Sabu

doi:10.1166/jbns.2017.1440

Cited by 155 publications

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“…Glass fines comprise primarily of silica (SiO 2 ) and contain up to 30 wt% organic surface matters including well‐documented fungal macronutrients (C, O, Mg, S, K) and micronutrients (Ca) (Figure ). Industrial wastes have not been used so far in the manufacture of mycelium composites, although mycelium has previously been noted to grow anaerobically from soil particles on nutrient‐free silica gel …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mycelium composites are a new type of novel, economical, and environmentally sustainable materials that have attracted increasing academic and commercial interests over the past decade . Mycelium is the vegetative growth of filamentous fungi that bonds organic matter through a network of hyphal microfilaments in a natural biological process that can be exploited to produce composite materials . This process is cost‐effective because mycelium can grow on and bind agricultural and industrial waste materials (eg, rice hulls, sugarcane bagasse, wheat, barley straw, and glass fines) that have little or no commercial value and convert them into high‐value composite materials for multiple applications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This process is cost‐effective because mycelium can grow on and bind agricultural and industrial waste materials (eg, rice hulls, sugarcane bagasse, wheat, barley straw, and glass fines) that have little or no commercial value and convert them into high‐value composite materials for multiple applications. Furthermore, the wide variety of utilisable substrates coupled with technological improvements in processing means that manufacturers can customise mycelium composites to meet specific structural and functional requirements including impact resistance, fire resistance, and thermal and acoustic insulation …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, the wide variety of utilisable substrates coupled with technological improvements in processing means that manufacturers can customise mycelium composites to meet specific structural and functional requirements including impact resistance, fire resistance, and thermal and acoustic insulation. [1][2][3][4] The diverse range of useful properties of mycelium composites makes them suitable as low-cost and sustainable alternatives to widely used, highly flammable petroleum-derived and natural gas-derived synthetic polymers (eg, plastics including insulation foams) and resinbased engineered woods (eg, particleboard). These traditional construction materials have been identified as the main cause of severe and fatal fire incidents worldwide 8-11 because of significant heat release and the toxic fumes generated during combustion.…”

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Waste‐derived low‐cost mycelium composite construction materials with improved fire safety

et al. 2018

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Summary Mycelial growth attracts academic and commercial interest because of its ability to upcycle agricultural and industrial wastes into economical and environmentally sustainable composite materials using a natural, low‐energy manufacturing process able to sequester carbon. This study aims to characterise the effect of varying ratios of high silica agricultural and industrial wastes on the flammability of mycelium composites, relative to typical synthetic construction materials. The results reveal that mycelium composites are safer than the traditional construction materials considered, producing much lower average and peak heat release rates and longer time to flashover. They also release significantly less smoke and CO2, although CO production fluctuated. Rice hulls yielded significant char and silica ash which improved fire performance, but composites containing glass fines exhibited the best fire performance because of their significantly higher silica concentrations and low combustible material content. Higher concentrations of glass fines increased volume‐specific cost but reduced mass‐specific and density‐specific costs. The findings of this study show that mycelium composites are a very economical alternative to highly flammable petroleum‐derived and natural gas‐derived synthetic polymers and engineered woods for applications including insulation, furniture, and panelling.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biofabrication of Nanocellulose–Mycelium Hybrid Materials

Attias

Reid

Mijowska

et al. 2020

Advanced Sustainable Systems

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Healthy material alternatives based on renewable resources and sustainable technologies have the potential to disrupt the environmentally damaging production and consumption practices established throughout the modern industrial era. In this study, a mycelium–nanocellulose biocomposite with hybrid properties is produced by the agitated liquid culture of a white‐rot fungus (Trametes ochracea) with nanocellulose (NC) comprised as part of the culture media. Mycelial development proceeds via the formation of pellets, where NC is enriched in the pellets and depleted from the surrounding liquid media. Micrometer‐scale NC elements become engulfed in mycelium, whereas it is hypothesized that the nanometer‐scale fraction becomes integrated within the hyphal cell wall, such that all NC in the system is essentially surface‐modified by mycelium. The NC confers mechanical strength to films processed from the biocomposite, whereas the mycelium screens typical cellulose–water interactions, giving fibrous slurries that dewater faster and films that exhibit significantly improved wet resistance in comparison to pure NC films. The mycelium–nanocellulose biocomposites are processable in the ways familiar to papermaking and are suggested for diverse applications, including packaging, filtration, and hygiene products.

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Fabrication of Living Entangled Network Composites Enabled by Mycelium

Wang,

Tao,

et al. 2024

Advanced Science

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Organic polymer‐based composite materials with favorable mechanical performance and functionalities are keystones to various modern industries; however, the environmental pollution stemming from their processing poses a great challenge. In this study, by finding an autonomous phase separating ability of fungal mycelium, a new material fabrication approach is introduced that leverages such biological metabolism‐driven, mycelial growth‐induced phase separation to bypass high‐energy cost and labor‐intensive synthetic methods. The resulting self‐regenerative composites, featuring an entangled network structure of mycelium and assembled organic polymers, exhibit remarkable self‐healing properties, being capable of reversing complete separation and restoring ≈90% of the original strength. These composites further show exceptional mechanical strength, with a high specific strength of 8.15 MPa g.cm−3, and low water absorption properties (≈33% after 15 days of immersion). This approach spearheads the development of state‐of‐the‐art living composites, which directly utilize bioactive materials to “self‐grow” into materials endowed with exceptional mechanical and functional properties.

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Mycelium Composites: A Review of Engineering Characteristics and Growth Kinetics

Cited by 155 publications

References 0 publications

Waste‐derived low‐cost mycelium composite construction materials with improved fire safety

Waste‐derived low‐cost mycelium composite construction materials with improved fire safety

Biofabrication of Nanocellulose–Mycelium Hybrid Materials

Fabrication of Living Entangled Network Composites Enabled by Mycelium

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