Unleashing Nature's Potential: Mycelium-Based Innovation in Bio-Composites

Mycelium-based composites are groundbreaking biomaterials that are attracting considerable attention in the European Union and the United States. They have tremendous potential for commercializing sustainable products and offer numerous advantages over traditional materials in industrial sectors like construction, packaging, and textiles. These composites are derived from the vegetative part of fungi, which grows on a substrate, often made from agricultural or other renewable waste materials. They can be utilized in the production of various goods, ranging from furniture to insulation panels and eco-friendly leather, aligning with the principles of the circular economy.<br/><br/>Compared to conventional building materials, mycelium-based composites are more environmentally friendly as their production requires fewer resources and generates less waste and pollution. Moreover, they possess superior technical characteristics and can be molded into different shapes and sizes, opening new design possibilities. These adaptable biomaterials possess physical and mechanical properties that can be customized to meet specific requirements. This unique characteristic holds the potential to make a substantial impact on reducing the construction industry's carbon footprint, which currently contributes to around 40% of the total CO₂ emissions.<br/>Building materials contribute to various forms of pollution during their life cycle, caused by production, transport, installation, use, and disposal procedures. Addressing the pollution associated with building materials requires sustainable practices throughout the construction industry. Developing solutions without exploiting natural resources whilst safeguarding the environment is crucial for the ecological transition and the future of a green building market.<br/><br/>In recent years, microorganisms have been validated as a promising alternative to highly polluting products, such as foam insulation boards, particle boards, packaging materials, concrete, non-structural furniture elements, textiles, automotive and aerospace materials, and even medical applications. Mycelium-based composites consist of a lightweight material developed by an interwoven three-dimensional filamentous network of hyphae able to bind the feedstock. The use of biomaterials may have seemed like a utopian concept less than a decade ago, but today, they are gaining increased attention due to their customizable properties achieved through specific cultivation procedures.<br/><br/>Key factors that influence the mechanical behavior of mycelium-based composites include the selection of fungal strains, substrates, and cultivation conditions. Despite the exciting opportunity presented by the development of mycelium-based composites to create sustainable and environmentally friendly materials for the manufacturing industry, their widespread adoption has been limited by the lack of efficient manufacturing processes at the industrial level. The presentation discusses and compares various protocols to standardize an efficient manufacturing process for potential industrial scale-up.