First of kind UK mycelium inoculation plant for EPS replacement

神奇蘑菇公司（MMC）是一家英国可持续发展行业的中小企业，专注于开发一种真正的替代包装解决方案，可以减少基于膨胀聚苯乙烯（EPS）的包装泡沫的使用，解决围绕清洁制造技术和绿色材料的关键创新英国行动。MMC通过将菌丝体与农业废弃物结合来生产蘑菇包装（MP），并提供难以回收的膨胀聚苯乙烯（EPS）和其他化石燃料保护泡沫的替代品。该项目的目的是开设欧洲最大的，也是英国第一家接种厂，该工厂将用来自农业废物的原料加工菌丝。接种，将菌丝体注射到原料中，对于创造相当于EPS强度和性能的包装至关重要。该公司的Esher/Attenborough包装厂目前向客户提供中等数量的MP，每年去除相当于800吨未回收的EPS。塑料包装税正在创造对更环保包装解决方案的需求。MMC严重依赖进口，因为它在MP生产中使用的基材来自荷兰（没有英国的来源），这对碳产生了负面影响，与MMC实现净零排放的目标背道而驰。它也可能在运输过程中损坏，导致成本大幅上升，利润率下降。菌丝体生长良好的大麻叶，这是一个可靠的原料和废物从英国大麻工业。对于包装应用来说，它也是轻量级的。MMC需要控制其原材料供应，以进一步提供更具碳效率和可行性的包装解决方案，以影响EPS市场并进一步创新生产效率。一个10万平方英尺的英国接种厂的开业将使MMC能够处理来自英国的农业废物，这将产生380万公斤的原材料，供应MMC的两家英国包装工厂。部分资金将用于购买生物质锅炉，该锅炉将用于接种前对原料进行巴氏消毒的基本过程。这些锅炉使用农业和森林废弃物来产生蒸汽，这比化石燃料对环境的影响要小。虽然与燃油燃烧器相比，效率略低10%左右，但使用木屑颗粒运行生物质锅炉的平均成本约为5.2英镑/千瓦时，比7.3英镑/千瓦时的燃油便宜得多。MMC还可以利用废MP作为生物质燃料，展示循环性，并朝着净零迈进。

The Magical Mushroom Company (MMC) is a UK-based SME in the sustainability industry focused on developing a truly alternative packaging solution that can reduce the use of expanded-polystyrene (EPS)-based packaging foams, solving key Innovate UK actions around clean manufacturing technologies and green materials.MMC produces Mushroom Packaging (MP) by combining mycelium with agricultural waste to grow protective packaging and provide an alternative to hard-to-recycle expanded polystyrene (EPS) and other fossil-fuel protective foams. The purpose of this project is to open Europe's largest, and the UK's first, inoculation plant, which will process mycelium with feedstocks sourced from agricultural waste. Inoculation, which injects mycelium into the feedstock, is critical to creating packaging equivalent to the strength and performance of EPS.The company's Esher/Attenborough packaging plants currently supply medium volumes of MP to customers and remove the equivalent of 800 tonnes of unrecycled EPS annually. Plastic packaging taxes are creating demand for more environmentally friendly packaging solutions.MMC is heavily reliant on imports because the substrate it uses in MP production is sourced from the Netherlands ( there is no UK source), which has a negative carbon impact, and is counter to MMC's journey toward net-zero. It can also be damaged in transit leading to significantly higher costs and lower margins.Mycelium grows well on hemp shiv, which is a reliable feedstock and waste from the UK hemp industry. It is also lightweight for packaging applications. MMC needs to take control of its raw materials supply to further offer a more carbon-efficient and viable packaging solution in order to impact the EPS market and to further innovate production efficiencies.The opening of a 10K square-foot UK inoculation plant will allow MMC to process UK-sourced agricultural waste, which will produce 3.8M kilos of raw materials, supplying MMC's two UK packaging plants. Part of the funding will be used to purchase a biomass boiler, which will be used in the essential process of pasteurising the feedstock before inoculation. These boilers use agricultural and forest waste to produce steam, which has less effect on the environment than fossil fuels.While slightly less efficient by around 10% compared to oil burners, the average cost to run biomass boilers using wood pellets is around £5.2/kWh of usage, which is much cheaper than oil at £7.3/kWh. MMC can also deploy spent MP as biomass fuel, demonstrating circularity and steps toward net-zero.