Renewable and Compostable Fungus Based Plastics - Establishing the Structure/Property/Processing Relationships to Facilitate Commercialization

可再生和可堆肥的真菌塑料 - 建立结构/性能/加工关系以促进商业化

• 批准号: 1362234
• 负责人: Linda Schadler
• 金额: $ 47.36万
• 依托单位: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-06-01 至 2018-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1362234&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Renewable; Compostable; Fungus; Based; Plastics

Renewable and biodegradable materials are a key element to a sustainable planet. Ecovative Design, LLC (Ecovative) has created new compostable mycelium-based (fungus) bioplastic/biocomposite materials. The material is grown at room temperature in the dark (thus requiring little energy for processing) and heated/dried to drive off water and inactivate the fungus. These new biodegradable and renewable materials are being sold commercially as replacements for expanded polystyrene and polyethylene foams that are petroleum-based and difficult to recycle or reuse. These fungus-based biopolymers have the potential to be used in additional markets such as transportation and recreation that currently use petroleum-based plastics. To meet that potential, however, the structure/property/processing relationships need to be understood. This award supports fundamental research to provide needed knowledge on how to optimize and tailor the properties of these new materials. The impact of this project, which is a collaboration between Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Union College, and Ecovative, will be to expand the range of applications where highly renewable, compostable, and inexpensive materials can replace petroleum-derived products. Ecovative's bioplastic / biocomposite materials are created from a mixture of agricultural waste, feedstock, nutrients, and fungal inoculant. The resulting biopolymer/biocomposites consist of a self-assembled filamentous mass of hyphae (the filament cellular building block of mycelium fungi) grown around and securely anchoring the agriwaste. Thus, the biopolymer/biocomposite properties are strongly dependent on the agriwaste morphology, the hyphae alignment, density of the biocomposites, and degree of colonization. As in all materials development, structure/property/processing relationships are key to optimizing physical performance. To tailor the structure, we will explore processing techniques (electrospinning of model growth substrate, aligned cellulose fiber substrate, growth of hyphae under pressure, and freeze drying) that can potentially control hyphae alignment and hyphae strength as well as biopolymer density. We will use imaging techniques and image analysis to characterize the morphologies that develop. A range of mechanical properties will be measured from the scale of individual hyphae and progressing up through the bulk. The results will be compared to continuum level composite models as a starting point to evaluate the applicability of current models.

可再生和可生物降解的材料是可持续星球的关键要素。 Ecovative Design，LLC（Ecovative）创建了新的可堆肥菌丝体（真菌）生物塑料/生物复合材料。 该材料在室温下在黑暗中生长（因此需要很少的能量来加工），并加热/干燥以驱逐水并使真菌灭活。这些新的可生物降解材料和可再生材料正在商业上出售，以替代膨胀的聚苯乙烯和聚乙烯泡沫，这些泡沫是基于石油的，难以回收或再利用。 这些基于真菌的生物聚合物有可能在目前使用基于石油的塑料的运输和娱乐等其他市场中使用。但是，要满足这种潜力，需要了解结构/属性/处理关系。 该奖项支持基本研究，以提供有关如何优化和量身定制这些新材料的所需知识。 该项目的影响是Rensselaer理工学院，联合学院和Ecovative之间的合作，将扩大可再生，可堆肥和廉价材料可以取代石油衍生产品的应用范围。生物塑料 /生物复合材料是由农业废物，原料，养分和真菌接种剂的混合物产生的。由此产生的生物聚合物/生物复合材料由菌丝的自组装丝质（菌丝真菌的细胞蜂窝状块）组成，并在周围生长并牢固地固定在农业中。因此，生物聚合物/生物复合材料的特性在很大程度上取决于农业形态，菌丝对齐，生物复合材料的密度和定殖程度。 与所有材料开发一样，结构/属性/处理关系是优化身体绩效的关键。为了量身定制结构，我们将探索加工技术（模型生长底物的电纺丝，对齐的纤维素纤维底物，菌丝在压力下的生长以及冻干），这些纤维纤维的生长以及冻干）可以潜在地控制菌丝对齐和菌丝强度以及生物聚合物密度。我们将使用成像技术和图像分析来表征发展的形态。从单个菌丝的尺度上测量了一系列的机械性能，并通过整体进展。结果将与连续级复合模型进行比较，作为评估当前模型的适用性的起点。

项目成果

Stochastic continuum model for mycelium-based bio-foam

• DOI: 10.1016/j.matdes.2018.09.046
• 发表时间: 2018-12-15
• 期刊: MATERIALS & DESIGN
• 影响因子: 8.4
• 作者: Islam, M. R.;Tudryn, G.;Picu, R. C.
• 通讯作者: Picu, R. C.