Abstract
BackgroundRecent efforts in fungal biotechnology aim to develop new concepts and technologies that convert renewable plant biomass into innovative biomaterials. Hereby, plant substrates become metabolized by filamentous fungi to transform them into new fungal-based materials. Current research is thus focused on both understanding and optimizing the biology and genetics underlying filamentous fungal growth and on the development of new technologies to produce customized fungal-based materials.ResultsThis manuscript reports the production of stable pastes, composed of Fomes fomentarius mycelium, alginate and water with 71 wt.% mycelium in the solid content, for additive manufacturing of fungal-based composite materials. After printing complex shapes, such as hollow stars with up to 39 mm in height, a combination of freeze-drying and calcium-crosslinking processes allowed the printed shapes to remain stable even in the presence of water. The printed objects show low bulk densities of 0.12 ± 0.01 g/cm3 with interconnected macropores.ConclusionsThis work reports for the first time the application of mycelium obtained from the tinder fungus F. fomentarius for an extrusion-based additive manufacturing approach to fabricate customized light-weight 3D objects. The process holds great promise for developing light-weight, stable, and porous fungal-based materials that could replace expanded polystyrene produced from fossil resources.
Highlights
Recent efforts in fungal biotechnology aim to develop new concepts and technologies that convert renewable plant biomass into innovative biomaterials
Paste development with highly viscous alginate and fungi Criteria for obtaining the optimal paste formula for printing include the rheological properties of the paste, filament homogeneity, and stackability, as well as the results of the collapse tests
This study reports the successful development of completely bio-based pastes for extrusion-based additive manufacturing (AM) by using fungal mycelium and alginate, which is a common naturally derived rheology agent, as substrates
Summary
Recent efforts in fungal biotechnology aim to develop new concepts and technologies that convert renewable plant biomass into innovative biomaterials. Chen et al Fungal Biology and Biotechnology (2021) 8:21 candidates for the development of new cell factories for the production of a wide variety of materials [13]. Hereby, both pure fungal mycelium and composites consisting of fungal mycelium and plant biomass are of interest. In contrast to molding-based techniques, additive manufacturing (AM), known as 3D printing, does not rely on a specific mold, and allows the fabrication of complex parts with unusual geometry This is highly advantageous when object design and geometry frequently change, as in the case for furniture, niche product packaging, and architecture. The addition of solid substrates, like sawdust, which is typically used for AM in fungal-based materials, and the fibrous mycelium itself, makes the adaptation of AM challenging, especially in printing high-precision parts [24]
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