Enzymatic upcycling of textile waste into biodegradable mycelium leather

纺织工业在向清洁生产过渡过程中面临的两大挑战是开发制造纺织材料的新方法和寻找废物的替代用途。这项研究的重点是皮革生产;利用工业生物技术将纺织纤维中的废弃聚合物升级为菌丝体皮革。皮革是一个非常特殊的行业，特别是不可持续的行业;它需要大量的自然资源，导致温室气体排放，并在制革和加工过程中将危险化学品释放到废水中。尽管存在这些问题，但对皮革制品的需求仍在继续增长，全球市场价值约为3940亿美元。在过去的十年中，行业已经开始寻找动物皮革的可持续替代品，设计师和创新者已经开始研究可以通过生物发酵生产的材料，如细菌纤维素和菌丝体皮革。菌丝体皮革被视为传统皮革的有效替代品，市场上有Mylo（Bolt Threads）等产品，并被Stella McCartney和Lululemon等时装设计师和公司使用。废弃纺织品仍然是一个工业挑战，英国73%的纺织品废物被送往垃圾填埋场或焚烧。由于纺织品的纤维成分或化学成分，传统的回收途径并不适用于所有纺织品，因此需要对这些剩余材料进行新的利用。将剩余的纺织废料转化为高价值产品，如皮革类材料，使工业生物技术成为纺织业循环经济的核心。 该项目的最终目标是开发一个平台，利用工业生物技术对纺织纤维中的废弃聚合物进行升级。我们建议开发酶预处理鸡尾酒能够降解废棉，聚酯/聚乙烯，尼龙和（使这个过程真正循环）菌丝体皮革能够维持菌丝体生长的营养液。因此，发现能够降解纺织废物并形成酶和添加剂鸡尾酒的新酶是研究的关键方面。这将通过以下主要任务来完成：1.使用“Omic”方法从纺织废物和回收站点中识别酶，并审查这些站点中可用的废物类型。2.对已鉴定的酶进行表征，并将其与先前表征的酶（某些为内部酶）结合联合收割机，以形成能够降解废纺织品以产生生长基质的预处理混合物。3.测试所产生的生长基质维持真菌生长的能力。4.从这种真菌生长产生菌丝体皮革产品，并测试其物理性能，以比较传统的菌丝体皮革。 该项目将与许多对菌丝体皮革有既得利益的项目合作伙伴和利益相关者合作开展。废物和回收站将提供进入纺织品和纺织品丰富的垃圾填埋场进行“Omic”采样的机会，Prozomix将提供酶解决方案，与新发现的酶一起进行测试，MyKKO将把底物纳入其生产设施，并测试所生产的菌丝体皮革。通过将这些利益相关者聚集在一起，该项目将寻求将菌丝体皮革的生产更接近于工业过程，为菌丝体生产提供低成本的原料。

Two major challenges for the textile industry in the transition to clean production are developing new ways to make textile materials and finding alternative applications for waste. This research focuses on leather production; using industrial biotechnology to upcycle waste polymers from textile fibres into mycelium leather.Leather is a very specific sector of the industry that is particularly unsustainable; it requires extensive natural resources, contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, and releases hazardous chemicals into wastewater during tanning and processing. Despite these issues the demand for leather goods continues to grow with the global market thought to be worth around US$394 billion. In the last decade industry has begun searching for sustainable alternatives to animal leather and designers and innovators have begun to look at materials that can be produced through biological fermentation such as bacterial cellulose and mycelium leather. Mycelium leather is seen as a valid alternative to traditional hide leather and products are available on the market such as Mylo (Bolt Threads) and used by fashion designers and companies such as Stella McCartney and Lululemon.Waste textiles remain an industrial challenge, with 73 % of all textile waste sent to landfill or incinerated in the UK. Traditional recycling routes are not appropriate for all textiles due to either their fibre composition or chemicals components, therefore new uses for these surplus materials are required. The conversion of surplus textile waste into a high value product such as leather-like materials positions industrial biotechnology in the centre of the circular economy for the textile industry. This project ultimately aims to develop a platform that utilises industrial biotechnology to upcycle waste polymers from textile fibres. We propose to develop enzymatic pre-treatment cocktails capable of degrading waste cotton, polyester / polyethylene, Nylon and (to make this process truly circular) mycelium leather to a nutrient solution capable of sustaining mycelium growth. Therefore, the discovery of new enzymes capable of degrading textile waste and forming enzyme and additive cocktails is a critical aspect of the research. This will be completed through the following main tasks:1. Identification of enzymes using an "Omic" approach from textile waste and recycling sites and a review of the types of wastes available at those sites. 2. Characterise those enzymes identified and combine with previously characterised enzymes (some in-house) to form pre-treatment cocktails capable of waste textile degradation to produce a growth substrate. 3. Test the ability of the growth substrate produced to sustain fungal growth. 4. From this fungal growth produce a mycelium leather product and test its physical properties to compare to traditional mycelium leather. This project will be carried out in collaboration with a number of project partners and stakeholders that have a vested interest in mycelium leather. Waste and recycling sites will provide access to textile only and textile rich landfill sites for "Omic" sampling, Prozomix will supply enzyme solutions for testing alongside newly discovered enzymes and MyKKO will incorporate the substrates into their production facility, as well as testing of the mycelium leather produced. By bringing together these stakeholders alongside this project, this project will look to move the production of mycelium leather closer to an industrial process providing a low-cost feed stock for mycelium production.