In this article we see two young scientists (Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre) create an amazing eco-friendly alternative to home insulation. They like to call this new insulation “Greensulate”. What they do is take In the lab they grow mycelia, the vegetative roots of mushrooms (a lot like a bundle of white fibers). However instead of growing the plants into grass (naturally), the roots grow in a bed of agricultural by-products like buckwheat husks, and then those fibers like tubes and roots grow together to make a strong support base. Then the mixture or material they make they put into a mold of some sort like a panel, and after 10 to 14 days, the mycelia develop a dense group. Something amazing and to show you how dense these things is, one cubic inch of the mixture contains roughly 8-miles of mycelia strands. The panels are dried in an oven at between 100° and 150°F to stop mycelia growth, and at the end of two weeks, they're ready for your walls. Another great thing about this is it can be grown in the dark and in a short period of time so its not expensive and easy to create. This could also potentially solve a lot of Styrofoam problems because it is easy to manipulate shape density and many other factors of this intriguing substance. I thought this was a super good idea and ill be interested to see how this progresses over the next couple years.
This is an image and caption cut from the article:
Greensulate: How It Works: Greensulate’s strength derives from billions of mycelia, or tubelike mushroom roots that intertwine with agricultural castoffs like seed husks. One cubic inch of the material contains eight miles of mycelium fibers Bland Designs
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