MUSHROOMS GROW SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING

One day soon, the pizza that you order for delivery might arrive not only topped with mushrooms but in a package made of mushrooms.

Two engineers have developed a new packing material that grows itself. The product, called Mycobond, is a composite of inedible agricultural waste and mushroom roots, and manufacturing it requires just oneeighth the energy and one-tenth the carbon dioxide of traditional foam packing material. And, unlike most foam substitutes, it makes excellent compost.

The technology was invented by Gavin Mclntyre and Eben Bayer, former Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute undergraduates who founded the company Ecovative Design to bring their idea to fruition.

"We don't manufacture materials, we grow them," says Mclntyre, the company's co-founder and chief scientist. "All of our raw materials are inherently renewable, and they are literally waste streams. It's an open system based on biological materials." He adds that, because the feedstock is based on renewable resources, the material is not prone to the price fluctuations common to synthetic materials derived from such sources as petroleum. "We're converting agricultural byproducts into a higher- value product," he says.

With the help of a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Mclntyre and Bayer are developing a new, lessenergy-intensive method to sterilize their agriculturalwaste starting material - a necessary step for enabling the mushroom fibers (mycelia) to grow. The team is replacing a steam-heat process with a treatment made from cinnamon-bark oil, thyme oil, oregano oil, and lemongrass oil.

The sterilization process, which kills any spores that could compete with the mushrooms, is almost as effective as the autoclaving process used to disinfect medical instruments, and will allow the Mycobond products to grow in the open air, instead of in the clean-room environment where they are currently grown.

Mclntyre notes that the biological disinfection process emulates nature. "It uses compounds that plants have evolved over centuries to inhibit microbial growth. The unintended result is that our production floor smells like a pizza shop," he says.

The first part of the manufacturing process consumes virtually no energy, as the mycelia grow around and digest agricultural starter material - such as cottonseed or wood fiber - in an environment that is both dark and at room-temperature. Because the growth occurs within a molded plastic structure (which can be customized for each application), no energy is required for shaping the products. Once fully formed, each piece is heattreated to stop the growth process.

The team believes that the new disinfection treatment will allow the company to package the entire process as a kit, allowing shipping facilities, and even homeowners, to grow their own Mycobond materials.

Based on a preliminary assessment conducted under Ecovative 's Phase I NSF SBIR award, the improvements to the sterilization phase will reduce the energy of the entire manufacturing process to one-fortieth of that required to create polymer foam.

According to Ben Schrag, the NSF program officer who oversees Ecovative 's SBIR award, "This project is compelling because it uses innovative technology to further improve Ecovative's value, while also providing the environmental benefits that NSF is looking for." He cites it as an example of a company building a strong business around products whose primary competitive advantage lies in their sustainability.

In addition to the packaging product, called EcoCradle, Ecovative has developed a home insulation product called Greensulate -which is comparable in effectiveness to foam insulation, but has the added benefit of being flameretardant.

Along with the NSF award, Ecovative has received support from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Research Service, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

[Sidebar]

EcoCradle packaging material is composed of agricultural byproducts (cotton gin trash) bound together by fungal mycelium. Witti an appearance and functionality similar to that of polymer foams, the packaging can be manufactured with just one-eighth the energy and one-tenth the carton dioxide of traditional foam packing material. Photo courtesy of Edward Browka, Ecovative Design.