Invention Awards: Eco-Friendly Insulation Made From Mushrooms

When I pick insulation bio degradable is not what I'm after. I don't want to encourage the hippies to eat my walls.

Jake Revive Your Life

Way to go Eben and Gabin! These are the type of eco-friendly materials we need. Good article.

When I choose wall coverings I choose materials that won't kill me. I'm allergic to mushrooms, dude!

I wonder how effective it is. There is no mention of any type of R rating. Other than that, sounds great.

NO WAY!!!

I am in real estate, and have seen what the Black Death (mold) can do to homes and people, and they want to fill the walls with the very same fungi? Cooking it will not stop it from hosting mold if and when it becomes wet.

Remember the drywall from China that is making people sick.

Sure glad they are testing it on the children in that high school in Vermont. . .

After all: It's for the children.

Let's remember that these are sharp young engineers from Rensselaer Poly ---not aggies brainstorming to expand their market. This article is a tickler, like most in PopSci, and the meat/potatoes of technical questions are not touched here.

This development was supported by grants from professional technical organizations and the product is meeting critical standards from ASTM. The finished product even acts as a FIREWALL. According to their website, they produce finished slabs using only the root-system-mycelia so no spores are ever produced, and The final step of our manufacturing process renders the material biologically inert. www.ecovativedesign.com

BTW - biodegradable doesn't come into play until you see a building coming down. All that polystyrene is a really nasty mess to clean up. This insulation should hold up as well as any 2x4s in a building, and that depends on the quality of contractor production. If you put it together wrong you get the condensation mold eating your 2x4s, regardless of the insulation; if it stands in flood waters, you get mold; if the tornado takes off the roof, then drops a downpour, you've got a problem. --Here in the mid-west we see all these problems --makes me dream of living in one of these old missile silos --but let's try to give these kids credit for making inroads into self-reliance and sustainability without assuming they don't do their homework, okay?

oops...
Their website says this insulation has an R-value of 3 per inch; with polystyrene values in the range of R 5.6 to R 8 per inch, you will have to go thicker to get the same protection.

Also, I made a mistake in trying to set off a quote, and the system swallowed the quotation information --I am in no way affiliated with these folks --I wish.

The following website has a list of R-values for various insulation types. Currently, the mushroom insulation has an R-value roughly equal to the average for fiberglass batting, which is what you typically find in the walls of most home construction at present.

www.insulation-r-values.com

Ecowarrior: thanks for addressing some of the fungi-phobia and general ignorance of science shown in some of the other replies.

Let me clear up another couple of misconceptions:

LRCote: There are at least as many different fungi in the world as there are plants, if not more, so saying you're allergic to mushrooms (probably the regular white button mushroom) is as silly someone with a peanut allergy saying they can't eat any food made from plants, or, more similarly to your statement, that they won't live in a house made of wood for fear it will make them sick.

Jackster: Sick house syndrome due to mold is a major issue, but as you said, it's all about moisture control; if my new home was leaky, inadequately vented, moldy and falling apart, I'd blame shoddy construction or shady realtors for the problem. And again, this is not the very same fungus, they are not all the same!

Fungal spores are always present in the air, molds can eat just about anything, and they will grow on any organic material wherever conditions are right - although I'd bet this product is more resistant to mold colonization, since it's a natural biopolymer (cellulose) that already been eaten by a fungus, which turned it into another biopolymer (chitin).

These guys are to be commended for their efforts. We need to do more and more with biopolymers since the oil is running out, and the oceans are filling up with bits of plastic which kill everything that eats it. Fungal biopolymers are very promising, and only just starting to be developed - there are more applications of processed chitin (fungal fiber) that PopSci should review, including a DoD project that made some advanced new wound dressings that can stop the bleeding of major arterial wounds and prevent infection - this technology will likely trickle into consumer goods in the next few years, and may save your life some day.

Fungi are the unsung heroes of the microbial world, without which there would be no trees, no forests, no soil, and probably no ecosystem for us to live in. Time to stop being afraid of them.

For those who want to educate themselves, Read "Mycelium Running" by Paul Stamets to find out how fungi can help save the world.

This is a great invention and these guys won prize after prize. Here more about the Picnic Green Challenge.
http://www.stichtingmilieunet.nl/andersbekekenblog/?p=3934

This competition is recently opened again for the 2009 Green Challenge. First prize 500.000 euro and two other prizes of 100.000 euro.

So, if you have some great idea, feel free to join the 2009 contest.

Milieunet Foundation is a non-profit organisation focused on awareness and change of behaviour by means of communication about waste, energy, sustainability, nature, environment, climate, human rights and international development cooperation.

jnsmith Hooray a sensible comment ! Not A rant

Ick, I HATE mushrooms. Wait, I hate the mushrooms that are considered food. The trippy mushrooms are cool. This is a good way to use the food based mushrooms and get them off my plate!

http://www.propeller.com/member/suzyjenkins/

Be sure those who want to buy your house aren't allergic to the mushrooms. I imagine if the insulation gets wet that the smell would be another factor to be concerned with.

http://beecherbowers

Petroleum byproducts family is number one pollution in my opinion.
Polystyrene is REALLY awful, and when you burn it (accidentally) it's cancerous.
Mushroom on the other hand is living ...

I wonder if you cut a piece of greensulate and have moisture (a rain) on it (like on most of constructions today) if you get the mushroom growing, or being a substrate for other species, or turning to food for insects and rodents (so you need to add bad pesticides to process).

Pretty sure a giant company will buy out, that's the saddest.
BUT, it's definitely a HUGE development in the good way.
Keep it up!

Innovate to save the world together!
www.togethearth.com

Mushrooms to replace the plastic, a good idea!
www.firmoo.com/new-arrivals.html