SBIR Phase I: Method of Disinfecting Precursor Materials using Plant Essential Oils for a new Material Technology

这项小企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在进一步降低与Mycobond平台前体材料灭菌相关的经济和环境成本。真菌键是一种革命性的材料，是从农业副产品和丝状真菌（担子菌菌丝体）的营养生长中生长出来的。为了确保足够的生长，所有原料都经过灭菌或巴氏灭菌，这代表了长达24小时的处理时间和50%的材料成本。本研究打算使用一种由植物精油（PEOs）中的酚类化合物组成的乳液来灭活所有原料上的竞争生物，同时降低制造成本。初步试验取得了良好的结果，表明有可能将消毒成本降低88%。此外，通过去除高熵过程，该过程可以显著降低与生产相关的资本支出和环境足迹。用peo成功消毒，然后接种所需菌丝体，将使Mycobond？技术的零售价格低于膨胀聚苯乙烯（EPS），赋予竞争优势，将有助于获得快速的市场采用。该技术的基准良好的EPS，并有兴趣的早期采用者在保护包装和刚性板绝缘行业。该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是为包装和绝缘行业开发可持续的高性能复合材料。进口到美国的石油中，有10%用于生产本质上不可持续的材料。Mycobond平台是许多这些材料的直接替代品，适用于从保护性包装到结构核心的产品。PEO乳液的使用旨在通过密切模仿自然来进一步减少材料生产的能源消耗。与相同体积的EPS相比，生物复合材料及其相关工艺可以减少五倍的能源消耗和十倍的温室气体排放。此外，由于使用的原材料是美国工业的副产品，因此将产生新的收入来源，促进当地经济。该过程中使用的植物和相关化合物可快速再生，所提出的消毒平台是一个开放的系统，减少了对单一原料的依赖。使用PEO乳剂对材料进行消毒的价值超出了复合材料的生产，并将在农业、工业和蘑菇的商业种植中得到应用。通过提高低成本、区域生产的可行性，有效替代高蕴含能源的过程将支持当地制造业。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project seeks to further reduce the economic and environmental costs associated with sterilization of precursor materials for the Mycobond platform. Mycobond is a revolutionary material that is grown from agricultural byproducts and a vegetative growth of a filamentous fungus (basidiomycete mycelium). To ensure adequate growth all raw materials are either sterilized or pasteurized, which represents up to 24 hours of process time and 50% of the material cost. This research intends to use an emulsion comprised of phenolic compounds from plant essential oils (PEOs) to inactivate competitive organisms on all feedstocks while reducing manufacturing costs. Preliminary trails have yielded favorable results, indicating a potential reduction of the disinfection costs by 88%. Furthermore, this procedure can significantly reduce both the capital expense associated with production and the environmental footprint by removing high entropy processes. Achieving successful disinfection with PEOs, and later inoculation with the desired mycelium, will allow the Mycobond? technology to retail at prices below those of expanded polystyrene (EPS), granting a competitive advantage that would aid in gaining rapid market adoption. The technology benchmarks well against EPS, and has interested early adopters in the protective packaging and rigid board insulation industries. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is the development of sustainable, high-performance composite materials for the packaging and insulation industries. 10% of the petroleum imported into the United States is allocated to the production of inherently unsustainable materials. The Mycobond platform is a direct replacement for many these materials, applicable for products from protective packaging to structural cores. The use of a PEO emulsion seeks to further reduce the energy consumption of material production by closely emulating nature. The biological composites and related processes can reduce energy consumption fivefold and greenhouse gas emissions by tenfold when compared to an identical volume of EPS. Furthermore, since the raw materials used are byproducts from American industries, a new revenue stream will result, bolstering local economies. The plants and related compounds utilized in the procedure are rapidly renewable and the proposed disinfection platform is an open system which reduces dependence on a solitary feedstock. The use of PEO emulsions to disinfect materials has value beyond composites production, and will find applications in agriculture industry and commercial cultivation of mushrooms. The effective replacement of high-embodied energy processes will support local manufacturing by increasing the feasibility of low-cost, regional production.