Abstract
The project presentedhere investigates the extent to which fungal mycelium can be used to replace conventional fossil or mineral binders in building materials. Both biological raw materials and residual materials were used as structural building materials and bonded together by mycelial growth. The material to be developed should be applicable as building insulating material. In tentative preliminary tests, different material combinations of nutrient, fungus and building structure material were examined for their potential. Based on these findings, larger prototypes measuring 25 × 25 × 3 cm3 were then manufactured. Their material properties were subsequently determined in the laboratory. It was found that the manufactured prototypes consistently exhibited very low diffusion resistance. The resulting thermal conductivity lies within ranges from 0.049 to 0.068 W/(mK), depending on the type of fungus, the substrate and the aggregates. This is rather high compared to conventional insulation materials. However, the experiments show the potential of myco-composites as substitute for mineral oil based products.
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Acknowledgment
This project was part of “Ideenwettbewerb Biologisierung der Technik” and funded by VDI Technologiezentrum on behalf of the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung BMBF (funding code 13XP5157).
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Giglmeier, S., Hofbauer, W.K., Kaiser, C., Krueger, N., Krus, M., Schwerd, R. (2023). Development of a Bio-Hybrid Insulation Material – Connection by Growth and Interlinking. In: Amziane, S., Merta, I., Page, J. (eds) Bio-Based Building Materials. ICBBM 2023. RILEM Bookseries, vol 45. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33465-8_52
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33465-8_52
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