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材料是可持续地球的关键要素。 Ecovative Design，LLC（Ecovative）创造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进行加工），并加热/干燥以除去水分并使真菌生长。这些新的可生物降解和可再生材料正在商业上销售，作为石油基和难以回收或再利用的发泡聚苯乙烯和聚乙烯泡沫的替代品。 这些基于真菌的生物聚合物有可能用于其他市场，如目前使用石油基塑料的运输和娱乐。然而，为了满足这种潜力，需要理解结构/性质/加工关系。 该奖项支持基础研究，以提供有关如何优化和定制这些新材料特性的必要知识。 该项目是伦斯勒理工学院，联合学院和Ecovative之间的合作，其影响将扩大高度可再生，可堆肥和廉价材料可以取代石油衍生产品的应用范围。Ecovative的生物塑料/生物复合材料是由农业废物、原料、营养物质和真菌接种剂的混合物制成的。所得到的生物聚合物/生物复合材料由生长在农业废弃物周围并牢固地锚定农业废弃物的菌丝（菌丝体真菌的丝状细胞构建块）的自组装丝状物质组成。因此，生物聚合物/生物复合材料的性质强烈依赖于农业废弃物的形态，菌丝排列，生物复合材料的密度，和殖民化的程度。 在所有材料开发中，结构/性能/加工关系是优化物理性能的关键。为了调整结构，我们将探索加工技术（模型生长基质的静电纺丝，对齐的纤维素纤维基质，压力下菌丝的生长和冷冻干燥），这些技术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。一系列的机械性能将从单个菌丝的规模，并逐步通过散装测量。将结果与连续水平复合模型进行比较，作为评估当前模型适用性的起点。

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.