Enzymatic upcycling of textile waste into biodegradable mycelium leather

纺织业在向清洁生产过渡的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应用。这项研究的重点是皮革生产；利用工业生物技术将废弃的聚合物从纺织纤维向上回收到菌丝体皮革中。皮革是该行业中一个特别不可持续的行业；它需要广泛的自然资源，导致温室气体排放，并在制革和加工过程中向废水中排放危险化学物质。尽管存在这些问题，对皮革制品的需求仍在继续增长，全球市场据信价值约3940亿美元。在过去的十年里，工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寻找可以通过生物发酵生产的材料，如细菌纤维素和菌丝革。菌丝革被视为传统皮革的有效替代品，市场上有Mylo(螺栓线)等产品，时尚设计师和斯特拉·麦卡特尼(Stella McCartney)和露露柠檬(Lululemon)等公司都使用这种产品。在英国，73%的纺织品废料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，传统的回收路线并不适合所有的纺织品，因此需要对这些多余的材料进行新的用途。将剩馀的纺织废料转化为高价值产品，如皮革类材料，使工业生物技术处于纺织业循环经济的中心。该项目最终旨在开发一个平台，利用工业生物技术从纺织纤维中回收废旧聚合物。我们建议开发酶前处理鸡尾酒，能够将废棉、聚酯/聚乙烯、尼龙和(使这一过程真正循环)菌丝体皮革降解成能够维持菌丝生长的营养液。因此，发现能够降解纺织废料并形成酶和添加剂鸡尾酒的新酶是研究的一个关键方面。这将通过以下主要任务来完成：1.使用“基因组”方法从纺织废物和回收地点确定酶，并审查这些地点可用的废物类型。2.确定那些已鉴定的酶的特性，并与以前已确定特性的酶(一些内部酶)结合，形成能够降解废旧纺织品以产生生长基质的前处理鸡尾酒。3.测试所生产的生长底物对真菌生长的支持能力。4.利用这种真菌的生长，生产出一种菌丝革产品，并测试其物理性能，与传统的菌丝革进行比较。该项目将与一些在菌丝体皮革方面拥有既得利益的项目合作伙伴和利益攸关方合作进行。废物和回收地点将提供进入仅限纺织品和富含纺织品的垃圾填埋场进行“基因组”采样的通道，Prozomix将提供用于测试的酶解决方案以及新发现的酶，MyKKO将把底物纳入其生产设施，以及对生产的菌丝体皮革进行测试。通过将这些利益相关者与该项目结合在一起，该项目将寻求使菌丝体皮革的生产更接近于为菌丝体生产提供低成本原料的工业化过程。

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.