Abstract
The transition from a linear to a circular economy is urgently needed to mitigate environmental impacts and loss of biodiversity. Among the many potential solutions, the development of entirely natural-based materials derived from waste is promising. One such material is mycelium-bound composites obtained from the growth of fungi onto solid lignocellulosic substrates, which find applications such as insulating foams, textiles, packaging, etc. During growth, the fungus degrades and digests the substrate to create a web-like stiff network called mycelium. The development of the mycelium is influenced by several factors, including the substrate composition. As food waste accounts for nearly 44% of total municipal solid waste, incorporating food in the substrate composition could be a means to increase the nutrients absorbed by the fungus. In this paper, we study the effects of the addition of food supplements on the growth of two fungal species, Ganoderma lucidum and Pleurotus ostreatus. The substrates, the food supplements, and the mycelia are characterized using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and optical microscopy. Our results show that addition of barley as a supplement significantly boosts the growth of G. lucidum and P. ostreatus. Using a common food as a nutritious enrichment for the development of mycelium is a simple and straightforward strategy to create waste-based mycelium-bound biocomposites for a large range of applications, on-site, therefore promoting a circular economy.
Highlights
In the era of the Anthropocene, transitioning from a linear to a circular economy is a must, in order to mitigate environmental impacts and the loss of biodiversity [1, 2]
The compositions of the food supplements were obtained using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and the nutritional values were obtained from the food packaging
We demonstrate here the advantage of using barley as a food supplement to boost the growth of P. ostreatus
Summary
In the era of the Anthropocene, transitioning from a linear to a circular economy is a must, in order to mitigate environmental impacts and the loss of biodiversity [1, 2]. Among the various solutions to support this transition, mycelium-bound composites, which are composite materials obtained from lignocellulosic substrates and fungi, have appeared highly promising for a large variety of applications such as packaging, insulation and design [3]. ETH Centre and at Nanyang Technological University. The authors acknowledge the Facility for Analysis, Characterization, Testing, and Simulation, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore for the use of their electron microscopy facilities. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials
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