Sustainable Fungal Textiles: A novel approach for reuse of food waste
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Högskolan i Borås - Akademi textil, teknik och ekonomi |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 6 880 742 |
| Project duration | November 2018 - January 2023 |
| Status | Completed |
Purpose and goal
The project aimed at turning two big environmental challenges to new opportunities. 1-The negative impact of commercial textiles 2-The large volume of the food waste During the project, novel textile materials were generated from food waste. We used the food waste as a substrate to cultivate filamentous fungi. These microorganisms generated a branched structure of microfibers while growing. New methods were developed to spin filaments and to make yarns from fungal microfibers. Methods also were developed to turn the fungal material to bioplastics and leather like materials.
Expected results and effects
Submerged cultivation of fungi in bread waste resulted in a quick nutrient uptake and fungal growth. The fungal biomass was treated to isolate the microfibers that were used for spinning of filament and generation of yarn. The yarns showed promising features for medical application (antibacterial and wound healing properties). Leather like materials and bioplastics were made by wet laying of microfibers, with interesting characteristics for leather products and packaging applications. Fungal proteins were recovered as by products with potential application in food and feed.
Planned approach and implementation
The fungal textiles project was conducted at University of Borås in collaboration with project partners (KTH, RISE, Sahlgrenska University Hospital) and several other universities and research institutes who joined the project later. We have communicated about the results of project with several companies and institutes that can be the potential user of the fungal textiles in the future och got positive feedback. So far project has resulted in 6 scientific publications, and we have 6 more manuscripts under preparation. More information is available on the project website.