BMS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT

UTILIZATION OF MYCELIUM BASED FUNGI IN

DEVELOPMENT OF ECO-FRIENDLY MASONRY UNITS
Presented by
Chirag R (1BY16CV012)
GV Naveen Kumar (1BY15CV021)
Hemanth RS (1BY15CV028)
Chethan Kumar DI (1BY17CV401)

Under the supervision of

Mrs. Archana K
Department of Civil engineering
07-11-2019

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Contents
• Introduction

• Literature review
- Mycelium building blocks
- Mycelium Properties
- Other Mycelium bio-composites

• Summary of literature review

• Objectives

• Scope of the project

• Methodology

• Future work

• References 2
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Introduction

• The growing need of the industry for alternative materials and products
that are bio-degradable and derived from renewable resources has
increased.

• We can consider mycelium is one such material which is bio-degradable.

• Mycelium can be used to make our brittle product (Mycelium block)

which could be our future.

• Present day mycelium is used as alternatives for plastic, insulation

material, furniture and for art models.

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Mycelium
Mycelium is a vegetative part of a fungus, consisting of a network of a fine
white filaments (hyphae).
Advantages of mycelium:
•Bio-degradable matter.
•Reduces carbon footprints.
•The root-like structure of the mycelium can multiply
the circulation of a plant by 1000 times.
•Provides protection against non-beneficial fungi, virus,
bacteria and breaks down soil nutrients making them
accessible to plants.
Mycelium as a product:
•Used as Insulation material.
•Used as alternative for plastic.
•Used for art models.
•Used as furniture.
•Used as tiles. Source Google
 BMS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
Literature Review: MYCELIUM BUILDING BLOCKS
TITLE OF PAPER
Title of the paper Author Content of the paper Derived knowledge

Yangang
Growing and testing xing , •Building insulation
mycelium bricks as Mathew •Fungi species and growing •To reduce heat &
process cooling energy
building insulation brewer,
material. Hoda el- •Measurement of thermal consumptions , carbon
(2018) gharabawy, conductivity & specific heat emission & pollutions.
capacity.
Phil jones 1

•Mycelium growth experiments

Research on mycelium Joomi seo, •Mycelium block surface & chair •Compression & Yield
construction materials. strength of mycelium
Yan luo 2 series documentation
(June 2016) blocks
•Tests on mycelium blocks
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Literature Review- Mycelium building blocks

Title of the paper Author Content of the paper Derived knowledge

Mycelium •Compressive strength

composites : An Santhosh B •Materials used for making
S, Bhavana D mycelium bricks.
emerging green (0.347N/mm²)
R, Rakesh M •Methodology for making
building material G3 mycelium bricks •Yield strength
(June 2018) (33.81%)

•Development of 40 feet tower

Production of mycelium
David
of mycelium •Growing of mycelium
bricks benjamin 4 •Building of structure entirely bricks with no carbon
(2014) from biodegradable materials emission and no waste

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Literature Review: Mycelium Properties
TITLE OF PAPER
Title of the paper Author Content of the paper Derived knowledge

•The fire reaction and thermal •Production of

Thermal degradation Mitchell degradation properties of a bio- mycelium bio-
Jones, composite produced from composites
and fire reaction
properties of mycelium Tanmay bhat, mycelium •Properties of mycelium
composites. Khalid •Preparation of mycelium blocks
moinuddin, composites
(Aug 2017)
sabu john 5

Developing novel •Mycelium-plant material as a bio- •Chemical parameters

applications of
Noam Attias, composite in design and •Ph level
Ofer Danai, architecture
mycelium based bio-
composite materials for
Nirit Ezov, •Characterization of mycelium-
Ezri Tarazi, plant bio-composite materials
design and architecture. Yasha J. properties
(Sep 2017)
Grobman 6 •Cultivation of Mycelium

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Literature Review: Other Mycelium bio-composites
TITLE OF PAPER
Title of the paper Author Content of the paper Derived knowledge

•Conventional bio-composite •Sustainable composites

Lai Jiang, manufacturing that use renewable
Manufacturing of Daniel •Processes for creating pre-formed materials and provide
mycelium-based Walczyk, Liam skins better end-of-life
biocomposites. Mooney, •Comparison of manufacturing options are of great
(May 2013) Samuel methods interest to industry.
Putney 7

•Previous literature surveys •Variety usage of

•Design and development of mycelium fungi
Mycelium material new organic brick •The effects of oxygen,
replacements for
Omid.Bafkar 8 •By-product acoustic absorbers carbon , nitrogen and
thermoplastics substrate limitations on
(Sep 2015) the mycelium
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Summary of Literature review
• There is circumstantial and limited results about mycelium blocks and there are no
tests have been done on durability.
• It is having potential to use as insulator and it can be converted into sheet
formwork
• Most progress in designing mycelium-based material to date has been made by
using petri dish and 3D printed geometries.
• None of the mycelium sheets retained flexibility. when fully desiccated, but instead
were extremely brittle. But these sheets have potential for yielding textile-like
products.
• Growth rate of mycelium is high at 33 ⁰C.
• The research establishes basic performance criteria & aesthetic qualities of
mycelium biocomposites, & determines that producing these materials locally using
regional mycelium strains and substrate materials is feasible.
• Present day mycelium is used as alternatives for plastic, insulation material,
furniture and for art models.

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Objectives
1. Study of mycelium fungi ,mycelium blocks & existing products.
2. Cultivation and testing of mycelium blocks for suitable mycelium
specimen with various substrates.
3. Preparation of a mycelium block with the best substrate for various
spawns.
4. Testing for various civil engineering properties and analyze the
durability.
5. Cost analysis, Life cycle analysis and comparison of mycelium blocks
with conventional blocks.

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Scope of the Project
• In the context of carbon emission reductions and the issues of global
warming, there is a need to pay attention to use of modern building
materials with reference to
-Natural resources and raw materials consumed,
-Impact on environment,
-Energy intensity of materials and
-Recycling and safe disposal
• Hence the idea to use agricultural waste has a substrate for growing fungal
mycelium in order to develop a construction material which has less of
carbon footprint in it and is eco-friendly.
• In this project, we shall attempt to prepare eco-friendly mycelium based
blocks and test their engineering properties.
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Methodology
Study of mycelium and selection of specimen

Selection of Substrate
Saw dust, Woodchips,Wheat husk,Cardboard

Growing of samples King oyster spawn

•Spawn - king oyster, white oyster
•spawn =70g , substrate = 1kg
•Temperature- 280 C to 330 C
•Time - 20 days
•Oven heat - 1000C

Test on properties of samples Substrates- sawdust, wood chips

•Compression strength
•Yield strength
•Durability
•Water absorption
•Fire resistance

Evaluation – Cost analysis, Life cycle analysis,

Growing samples
comparison with conventional brick
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Materials used: -Saw dust
-wood chips
-oyster spawn

Samples (29-10-2019)

Mycelium growth (01-11-2019)

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Future Work

• Growing mycelium blocks.

• Testing of mycelium blocks for engineering properties.
• If the desired strength and properties is not achieved partial
replacement of composites will be done.
• Evaluation of mycelium blocks after implementation of composites.

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Reference
1. Yangang xing , Mathew brewer,Hoda el- gharabawy,Phil jones(2018). “Growing and
testing mycelium bricks as building insulation material”.
2. Joomi seo, Yan luo (June 2016). “Research on mycelium construction materials”.
3. Santhosh B S, Bhavana D R, Rakesh M G (June 2018). “Mycelium composites : An
emerging green building material “.
4. David benjamin (2014). “Production of mycelium bricks”.
5. Mitchell Jones, Tanmay bhat, Khalid moinuddin, sabu john(Aug 2017). “Thermal
degradation and fire reaction properties of mycelium composites.”
6. Noam Attias, Ofer Danai,Nirit Ezov, Ezri Tarazi, Yasha J. Grobman(Sep 2017).
“Developing novel applications of mycelium based bio-composite materials for
design and architecture.”
7. Lai Jiang, Daniel Walczyk, Liam Mooney, Samuel Putney(May 2013).
“Manufacturing of mycelium-based biocomposites.”
8. Omid.Bafkar (Sep 2015). “Mycelium material new replacements for
thermoplastics .”

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THANK YOU

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