The promise of mycelium bricks

The mycelia of an oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) rising in a petri dish of floor espresso seeds.
| Photograph Credit score: Tobi Kellner

Within the mild of local weather change, the development business like many others is contemplating the way it can scale back its carbon footprint and develop into extra sustainable.

One alternative is anxious with bricks. Fired clay bricks have been the mainstay of the development business however their manufacturing additionally emits almost 300 million tonnes of carbon dioxide yearly, which may improve with extra urbanisation.

A brand new advance on this entrance is mycelium bricks. Mycelia are the branching filaments of fungi that make up its vegetative half. Researchers have them harnessed to create biodegradable, fire-resistant, and insulative bricks. They’re made by combining husk, sawdust, and fungal spores to create a fibrous community that solidifies into a light-weight materials. Inside just a few days, these supplies develop into a hardier construction.

Mycelium bricks have the potential to cut back the constructing sector’s carbon footprint, its proponents have stated. They’re comparatively extra light-weight and good insulators of warmth. Other than potential use as panelling materials in inside designs, researchers consider mycelium-based elements can be utilized in liquid filters, sports activities gear, and printed circuit boards.

However earlier than they’ll discover wider use, mycelium supplies want to enhance in some ways. At current they’ll’t bear heavier hundreds for longer durations. One 2020 assessment discovered that whereas mycelium composites have a excessive power to weight ratio, it’s two orders of magnitude decrease than concrete. They’re additionally prone to moisture, biodegrade in just a few years, and might’t be produced en masse.

“The price of rising and treating fungi for development functions is presently greater attributable to lack of infrastructure,” Rakesh Jha, a civil engineer and the founding father of Patna-based Veritech Infrastructure, stated.

India’s tropical climate exacerbates these issues. “Mycelium-based supplies aren’t as robust as standard supplies like concrete or brick or metal. Resulting from mycelium being extremely absorbent, it … weak to moisture and fungal decay in India’s local weather,” Jha added.

Whereas mycelium is of course fire-resistant, extended publicity to warmth may trigger structural failure. Mycelium composites additionally take up extra moisture than artificial foams and plywood, which is inimical for damp environments with leaking partitions or roofs. In addition they don’t resist termites.

However these are issues to be solved moderately than causes to discard mycelium bricks. For instance: “Mycelium will be handled with non-toxic flame retardants that may improve hearth resistance, adopted by a UV-protective coating that may stop photo-degradation in out of doors functions,” Jha stated.

The most important problem is customers’ angle, which consultants have stated would require extra funding in analysis and growth, to make mycelium bricks extra aggressive with clay bricks, and consciousness campaigns to shift.

However because of local weather change and the arrival of ideas like high-performance buildings, curiosity is already rising in different and sustainable supplies. “This shift together with coverage pushes can drive demand for sustainable options and assist in rising the marketplace for mycelium,” Aditya Srinivas Kandaala, founding father of Roha Biotech, a startup incubated at IIT Madras, stated.

Aditya Ansh is an unbiased media journalist based mostly in New Delhi.