Fungi offers amazing potential for low carbon, circular, plastic free and animal free biomaterials and biocomposites for a wide range of consumer applications. The biofabrication of composites and textiles from fungi has created alternatives to plastic, foam and leather in packaging, fashion, footwear and interiors.

Mycelium are the root structure of fungi. The thread like hyphae (1-30 microns in diameter) intertwine and fuse as they grow, forming a dense and stable network. Before the fungi can form its mushroom, it is cooked (pasteurised at around 70 degC) to lock the fibre structure in place. The mycelium may be grown on its own (100% mycelium), around or onto a fabric structure (such as cotton or polyester), or with woody fibre reinforcement. Ranging from highly compressible materials similar to expanded polystyrene (EPS) to dense leather-like fabrics, the properties of mycelium are highly tailorable. It is affected by the growing medium and conditions, as well as any additives or other reinforcements. By controlling these elements, the material properties are adjusted to suit an application.

Growth is promoted actively, or allowed to develop passively. In the active method, such as employed by Ecovative, CO2 is used to promote the development of mycelium and prevents the growth of mushrooms. Adding CO2 will impact greatly on the sustainability of the finished material. The data here are based on Reishi’s innovative method of passively grown mycelium (kgCO2e/kg), without additional CO2 to enhance development, combined with some assumptions based on established farming, forestry and textile data (MJ/kg).

While these materials are fully circular and require very little energy to produce, production does not create any harmful byproducts (most waste is compostable). There is not a lot of data available about this new category of materials, and production techniques are concealed in this highly competitive field, but indications are that they have the potential to have much lower carbon footprint than animal and petroleum based alternatives, even when produced on an industrial scale.