Mushroom Innovations in Insulation and Packaging

Blue jeans aren't the only thing that can be used to create environmentally friendly insulation. Green graduate students found a whole new use for mushrooms, and it does not have anything to do with food or cooking. While attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, students Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre created an alternative to regular foam insulation using mushrooms, one which after winning several awards in 2006 and 2007 is now available as "Greensulate" an eco-friendly alternative to regular insulation in homes that may be started a whole new "growth" for mushrooms, from green building green packaging, that all start with one little brown mushroom.

Greensulate and EcoCradle

Both products are created using agricultural by products, for example, rice hulls or cotton gin trash, and using a patent pending process (called Mycrobond) these materials are introduced to fungal mycelium (mushroom roots) This product grows for approximately 5-10 days creating an all natural rigid material, similar in nature to Styrofoam.

"We don't manufacture materials, we grow them," says McIntyre in an interview with Science Daily. "We're converting agricultural byproducts into a higher-value product." He adds, "Because the feedstock is based on renewable resources, the material has an economic benefit as well: it is not prone to the price fluctuations common to synthetic materials derived from such sources as petroleum. All of our raw materials are inherently renewable and they are literally waste streams. It's an open system based on biological materials."

Greensulate is created by turning the final product into insulation strips, that are also strong enough to protect your home from losing heating and air conditioning, but it also creates a firewall. When exposed to fire it is resistant to flames, but other insulations and packaging materials go up in flames and release toxic chemicals as they burn. Not only is the final product less expensive for building and construction home or commercial use, biodegradable and environmentally manufactured, but it is more effective at saving energy since o ne fifth of the energy used in America today comes from poorly insulated homes.

EcoCradle is the name given to the packaging materials created from using organic waste products in the "MycroBond" method. Using the same "Mycrobond" method, the by product is grown in different molds (no pun intended) to create the exact shape needed to protect products during shipping. No energy is even required for creating the shape of the shipping and packaging materials.

Both Greensulate and EcoCradle when fully formed are heat treated to stop the growth process and then disinfected using natural products.

What are the advantages of using organically grown and based packaging and insulation?

Compared to regular foam insulation, organic insulation has a lower R-value (4-5 vs. 4-8/per square inch).

These materials require very little energy to produce and shape; since they are grown in the dark and uses no petroleum products.

Manufacturing of EcoCradle its manufacture requires one eighth the energy and one tenth the carbon dioxide of traditional foam packing material.

Requires little money to manufacture so since it is not dependant on any materials other than waste products, it has the potential to have fewer "ups and downs" in pricing and purchasing.

These products have the potential to be used in other structural applications.

100% biodegradable either in a garden, compost pile or landfill.

The insulation is comparable in rigidity to polystyrene, making it just as strong but without the harmful "side effects."

There are no volatile organic compounds and since no "spores" were harmed in the growing of this product it is also allergen free.

What does the future hold for Ecovative Designs?

Ecovative Designs is the name giving to the company started by Bayer and McIntyre to produce these organically grown insulation and packaging materials. The packing material "EcoCradle" became available in 2009 and "Greensulate" in 2010 to a limited number of customers. Their vision for the future is to "essentially replace petroleum based synthetics, such as in plastics, foams, and resins." These inventors hope that at some point in the future the entire process can be packaged into a kit helping homeowner and shipping facilities to grow their own materials.

Sources:

Ecovative

Planet Green

Sustainable Rain Barrel

Science Daily