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The climate change and depletion of the world’s raw materials are commonly acknowledged as the biggest societal challenges. Decreasing the energy use and the related use of fossil fuels and fossil based materials is imperative for the future. Currently 40% of the total European energy consumption and about 45% of the CO2 emissions are related to building construction and utilization (EC, 2015). Almost half of this energy is embodied in materials. Developing sustainable materials to find replacement for traditional building materials is therefore an increasingly important issue.
In the original RAAK-mkb project “Building On Mycelium” Avans University of Applied Sciences, HZ University of Applied Sciences, University of Utrecht, industrial partners, SME’s and branch organisation are investigating how locally available organic waste streams can be used to produce ‘mycelium biocomposites’.
Mycelium biocomposites consist of two components: mycelium and biomass fibres. Mycelium is the ‘root network’ of mushrooms, which can act as a ‘natural glue’ to bind biomass. Mycelium grows through the biomass, which functions simultaneously as a growth substrate and a biocomposite matrix. Different organic residual streams such as straw, sawdust or other agricultural waste can be used as substrate, therefore mycelium biocomposites are totally natural, non-toxic, biological materials which can be grown locally and can be composted after usage. Therefore Mycelium biocomposites have a high potential to replace the traditional fossil based building materials.
This Raak impuls 2020 project aims to create mycelium biocomposites with properties that make them suitable for the building industry. Specifically the use of the biocomposite as raw materials for the manufacturing of furniture or interior panels (insulation or acoustic).