Mar 23, 2022 04:38 PM
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/945788
EXCERPTS: Your next trendy handbag could be fashioned from “leather” made from a fungus. Today, researchers will describe how they have harnessed this organism to convert food waste into sustainable faux leather, as well as paper products and cotton substitutes, with properties comparable to the traditional materials. They explain that this fungal leather takes less time to produce than existing substitutes already on the market, and, unlike some, is 100% biobased.
The researchers will present their results today at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring 2022 is a hybrid meeting being held virtually and in-person March 20-24, with on-demand access available March 21-April 8. The meeting features more than 12,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.
Cotton is in short supply, and, like petroleum-based textiles and leather, its production is associated with environmental concerns. Meanwhile, plenty of food goes to waste. Akram Zamani, Ph.D., set out to resolve these seemingly unrelated problems with new biobased, sustainable materials derived from fungi. “We hope they can replace cotton or synthetic fibers and animal leather, which can have negative environmental and ethical aspects,” says Zamani, the project’s principal investigator. “In developing our process, we have been careful not to use toxic chemicals or anything that could harm the environment.”
[...] While some other fungal leathers have already reached the market, little information about their production has been published, and their properties don’t yet match real leather, according to Zamani. From what she can ascertain, the commercial products are made from harvested mushrooms or from fungus grown in a thin layer on top of food waste or sawdust using solid state fermentation. Such methods require several days or weeks to produce enough fungal material, she notes, whereas her fungus is submerged in water and takes only a couple of days to make the same amount of material. A few other researchers are also experimenting with submerged cultivation but at a much smaller scale than her group’s efforts.
In addition, some of the fungal leathers on the market contain environmentally harmful coatings or reinforcing layers made of synthetic polymers derived from petroleum, such as polyester. That contrasts with the University of Borås team’s products, which consist solely of natural materials and will therefore be biodegradable, Zamani expects... (MORE - missing details)
https://youtu.be/5A6RYOL2VtE
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/5A6RYOL2VtE
EXCERPTS: Your next trendy handbag could be fashioned from “leather” made from a fungus. Today, researchers will describe how they have harnessed this organism to convert food waste into sustainable faux leather, as well as paper products and cotton substitutes, with properties comparable to the traditional materials. They explain that this fungal leather takes less time to produce than existing substitutes already on the market, and, unlike some, is 100% biobased.
The researchers will present their results today at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring 2022 is a hybrid meeting being held virtually and in-person March 20-24, with on-demand access available March 21-April 8. The meeting features more than 12,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.
Cotton is in short supply, and, like petroleum-based textiles and leather, its production is associated with environmental concerns. Meanwhile, plenty of food goes to waste. Akram Zamani, Ph.D., set out to resolve these seemingly unrelated problems with new biobased, sustainable materials derived from fungi. “We hope they can replace cotton or synthetic fibers and animal leather, which can have negative environmental and ethical aspects,” says Zamani, the project’s principal investigator. “In developing our process, we have been careful not to use toxic chemicals or anything that could harm the environment.”
[...] While some other fungal leathers have already reached the market, little information about their production has been published, and their properties don’t yet match real leather, according to Zamani. From what she can ascertain, the commercial products are made from harvested mushrooms or from fungus grown in a thin layer on top of food waste or sawdust using solid state fermentation. Such methods require several days or weeks to produce enough fungal material, she notes, whereas her fungus is submerged in water and takes only a couple of days to make the same amount of material. A few other researchers are also experimenting with submerged cultivation but at a much smaller scale than her group’s efforts.
In addition, some of the fungal leathers on the market contain environmentally harmful coatings or reinforcing layers made of synthetic polymers derived from petroleum, such as polyester. That contrasts with the University of Borås team’s products, which consist solely of natural materials and will therefore be biodegradable, Zamani expects... (MORE - missing details)
https://youtu.be/5A6RYOL2VtE