are mushrooms next plastic

bogwalrus

i found this fascinating talk about how mycillium is extracted from mushrooms and added to agri waste to be made into an alternative to syrofoam.

Have a look at the talk in the following link;

http://www.ted.com/talks/eben_bayer_are_mushrooms_the_new_plastic.html


Once you have watched it i would like to know a few things.

How can you single out mycillium from mushrooms and is the process difficult?

Could it be done in a cost efficient way and quickly?

How many mushrooms would you need to harvest per lets say each "corner piece" used in the video?

I would love to try this experiment myself to see how well it works.

I thinks it is a revolutionary idea.

thanks

Improbable

Mycelium is generally speaking the part of the mushroom that grows underground in fairly vast nets of thread-like material. Getting it isn't really a problem.

One problem I can see straight away is that because it is organic, you couldn't use it to really replace plastics which are used for cups and such because of the fact that it'll simply use the nutrients in whatever it's holding to keep growing unless you kill it off using some method that won't weaken the structure.

bogwalrus

thanks for reply.

Well according to bayer the mycillium dies on day 5 giving it a white fossilised look ( similar to what styrofoam looks like anyway). So if its dead its not going to be taking any more nutrients. But i wonder does the mean it is not weakened by liquid? It is biodegradable so id say when water does touch it ,it decays.


I could easily see it replacing home insulation and also insulation used in car manufacturing. also packaging for industrial products- even computer products.

I live here in cork and i could see 5 businesses that would prefer to use this material. I believe it is cost effective also.

invaderjim

Hadn't heard of this before, but I do know that you can make plastic from lactic acid. You can produce lactic acid from fermenting organic materials with lactic acid bacteria, which can then be polymerised. This produces a renewable biodegradable plastic.

bogwalrus

could lactic acid be a bio product of something. as in it can be got very easy and cheap?

also is Polymerization a difficult process and why is this not been done/used as an alternative to plastic should be on the top of the worlds "to-do list".

invaderjim

If you can ferment it with bacteria you can make lactic acid from it. It has been around for years but the polymerization was expensive. Not so any more with newer techniques, apparently it casts less that an euro to produce a half kilo of the plastic. As far as I know it is being used by retailers in the US, although it is not as flexible a product as traditional plastics. For example it can't be heated, so it wont replace thermo-stable plastics but it could be used for shopping bags, non heated food containers and a variety of other products.

It does require specific conditions for breakdown (High temperature) but it can be done. Widespread use would probably require a dedicated recycling facility but this would break it down. The main controversy with it is that it uses crops for non nutritive purposes.

By the way, meant to say thanks for posting the video. Really interesting research. You got to love science!

bogwalrus

i am intrigued. If politicians were involved and forced manufacturers to use alternative methods such as these the world would really be (in a visible way) a better place.


Those ted talks are pretty good for being up to date with new ideas etc.

recedite

I suspect that a lot of the cushioning in the product is due to the bulky undigested husks. Myceleiei (sorry, even my spellchecker can't get that one right) are acting like the glass fibres in fibreglass; giving strength. In this case form too. I doubt it's fireproof and it probably dissolves into a mess when wet, but then so does cardboard, and we all use that. All in all, cardboard might be a better comparison, not EPS.

bogwalrus

there is video footage of them on the net with a small flame thrower at it and it does not catch fire. I think the fact that the mushroom is dead after the process makes it into a hard cell form which can be impervious to fire and water.

Mushrooms themselves have a very water proof texture. possibly similar.

bildo

Lactic acid is a product glucose glycolysis performed anaerobically. This could easily be fermented from simple sugars by a variety of bacteria.

jkforde

another TED talk on mycelium by Paul Stamets.. he talks too fast in places but he's on to something... thank god we've started to think again after our 100 year petro-induced collective coma!

http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html

bildo

Yes it's mental. Quite hard to believe our entire society is STILL based on, built out of, completly reliant on and transported for the most part on DEAD F**KING DINOSAURS!!!

It's embarassing.

norrie rugger

bildo wrote: »

Yes it's mental. Quite hard to believe our entire society is STILL based on, built out of, completly reliant on and transported for the most part on DEAD F**KING DINOSAURS!!!

It's embarassing.

Diatoms

jellytots!

There is an exhibit on this in the science gallery in trinity college, dublin. Its pretty cool here is a video on what the gallery's exhibit looks like!
http://sciencegallery.com/gm_greensulateeco-cradle