First of kind UK mycelium inoculation plant for EPS replacement

神奇蘑菇公司(MMC)是一家总部位于英国的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，可以减少基于发泡聚苯乙烯(EPS)的包装泡沫的使用，解决关键问题。该项目的目的是开设欧洲最大的、也是英国第一家接种厂，该厂将以农业废弃物为原料处理菌丝体。接种是将菌丝体注入原料中，对于创造与EP的强度和性能相当的包装至关重要。该公司的Esher/Attenborough包装厂目前向客户供应中等数量的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(没有英国来源)，这对碳排放有负面影响，与MMC实现净零的旅程背道而驰。菌丝体在运输过程中也会损坏，导致成本显著上升，利润率降低。菌丝体在大麻屑上生长良好，这是英国大麻工业的可靠原料和废物。它对于包装应用程序来说也是轻量级的。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。一家10K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380万公斤原材料，供应MMC在英国的两家包装工厂。部分资金将用于购买生物质锅炉，用于接种前对原料进行巴氏灭菌的基本过程。这些锅炉使用农业和森林废弃物产生蒸汽，对环境的影响小于化石燃料。虽然与燃油燃烧器相比，效率略低约10%，但使用木质颗粒运行生物质锅炉的平均成本约为5.2 GB/千瓦时，远低于石油7.3 GB/千瓦时的成本。MMC还可以将废MP用作生物质燃料，显示出循环和向净零迈进的步骤。

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.