SBIR Phase I: Method of Disinfecting Precursor Materials using Plant Essential Oils for a new Material Technology

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在进一步降低与Mycoond平台前体材料杀菌相关的经济和环境成本。Mycoond是一种革命性的材料，它是从农业副产品和丝状真菌(担子菌菌丝体)的营养生长中生长出来的。为了确保足够的生长，所有原材料都经过灭菌或巴氏杀菌，这意味着长达24小时的加工时间和50%的材料成本。这项研究打算使用一种由植物精油(PEO)中的酚类化合物组成的乳剂来灭活所有原料上的竞争生物，同时降低制造成本。初步试验取得了良好的效果，表明消毒成本有可能降低88%。此外，通过消除高熵过程，该程序可以显著减少与生产相关的资本支出和环境足迹。用PEO成功消毒，然后接种所需的菌丝体，将允许真菌粘合吗？技术以低于发泡聚苯乙烯(EPS)的价格进行零售，从而获得竞争优势，有助于快速获得市场采用。该技术与EPS进行了良好的对比，并吸引了保护性包装和硬板绝缘行业的早期采用者。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是为包装和绝缘行业开发可持续的高性能复合材料。进口到美国的10%的石油被分配给生产本质上不可持续的材料。Mycoond平台是许多此类材料的直接替代品，适用于从防护包装到结构芯材的产品。PEO乳液的使用寻求通过紧密模仿自然来进一步降低材料生产的能源消耗。与相同体积的EPS相比，生物复合材料和相关工艺可以减少五倍的能源消耗和十倍的温室气体排放。此外，由于使用的原材料是美国工业的副产品，将产生新的收入来源，提振当地经济。该程序中使用的植物和相关化合物可迅速再生，拟议的消毒平台是一个开放式系统，减少了对单一原料的依赖。利用聚氧化乙烯乳液对材料进行消毒，不仅具有复合材料生产的价值，而且将在农业、工业和蘑菇商业种植中得到应用。通过增加低成本、地区性生产的可行性，有效地替代高能效工艺将支持当地制造业。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project seeks to further reduce the economic and environmental costs associated with sterilization of precursor materials for the Mycobond platform. Mycobond is a revolutionary material that is grown from agricultural byproducts and a vegetative growth of a filamentous fungus (basidiomycete mycelium). To ensure adequate growth all raw materials are either sterilized or pasteurized, which represents up to 24 hours of process time and 50% of the material cost. This research intends to use an emulsion comprised of phenolic compounds from plant essential oils (PEOs) to inactivate competitive organisms on all feedstocks while reducing manufacturing costs. Preliminary trails have yielded favorable results, indicating a potential reduction of the disinfection costs by 88%. Furthermore, this procedure can significantly reduce both the capital expense associated with production and the environmental footprint by removing high entropy processes. Achieving successful disinfection with PEOs, and later inoculation with the desired mycelium, will allow the Mycobond? technology to retail at prices below those of expanded polystyrene (EPS), granting a competitive advantage that would aid in gaining rapid market adoption. The technology benchmarks well against EPS, and has interested early adopters in the protective packaging and rigid board insulation industries. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is the development of sustainable, high-performance composite materials for the packaging and insulation industries. 10% of the petroleum imported into the United States is allocated to the production of inherently unsustainable materials. The Mycobond platform is a direct replacement for many these materials, applicable for products from protective packaging to structural cores. The use of a PEO emulsion seeks to further reduce the energy consumption of material production by closely emulating nature. The biological composites and related processes can reduce energy consumption fivefold and greenhouse gas emissions by tenfold when compared to an identical volume of EPS. Furthermore, since the raw materials used are byproducts from American industries, a new revenue stream will result, bolstering local economies. The plants and related compounds utilized in the procedure are rapidly renewable and the proposed disinfection platform is an open system which reduces dependence on a solitary feedstock. The use of PEO emulsions to disinfect materials has value beyond composites production, and will find applications in agriculture industry and commercial cultivation of mushrooms. The effective replacement of high-embodied energy processes will support local manufacturing by increasing the feasibility of low-cost, regional production.