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Packaging, Insulation Produced from Agricultural Byproducts

Mushroom foam sample (Edward Browka, Ecovative Design)

(Edward Browka, Ecovative Design)

Ecovative Design of Green Island, New York, is producing a new packaging material (pictured left) made from inedible agricultural waste and mushroom roots. The company is also developing a process for sterilizing this material based on spice oils rather than steam.

The technology to create this composite, marketed under the name Eco-Cradle, requires one-eighth the energy and creates one-tenth the carbon dioxide of traditional foam packing materials. In addition, when the material is no longer useful, it can be composted in gardens rather than discarded. Ecovative Design also makes a building insulation material made from agricultural byproducts rather than petrochemicals.

With support from National Science Foundation (NSF), Ecovative Design is developing a new method to sterilize their agricultural-waste starter material. Sterilization is needed for the mushroom fibers, called mycelia, to grow, but has traditionally required using steam. The company replaces the steam-heat process with a treatment made from cinnamon-bark oil, thyme oil, oregano oil and lemongrass oil, thus sharply reducing the intensive use of energy needed to produce steam.

Two recent Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute graduates, Gavin McIntyre and Eben Bayer, created the technology, called MycoBond, and founded Ecovative Design. The company’s NSF grant was a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award. Ecovative Design has received other support from the USDA Agricultural Research Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

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