Production of functional, machinable and eco-friendly mycelium composite panel for industrial design and architecture
Project no. 31892 · Status: Kapanmış (Yayın bekleniyor) · 2023
Summary
<p>Sustainability in the architecture and design sector has become not merely a preference but an unavoidable necessity. Mycelium biocomposites, with their low environmental impact, biodegradable nature, and versatile properties, represent a promising alternative that addresses this need. In line with making this potential practically applicable, the aim of this thesis was to develop environmentally friendly, processable, and functional mycelium panels. For this purpose, the fungal organisms <em>Pleurotus sp.</em> and <em>Ganoderma sp.</em>, which are among the most widely studied in the literature, were used. As main substrates, locally available and low-cost agricultural wastes such as rice husk (P), coffee waste (C), and cardboard (K) were utilized, with flour (UN) and wheat bran (BK) serving as supplementary substrates. SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) analyses, together with statistical evaluations of substrate–organism selection and substrate strength tests, led to the selection of <em>Ganoderma sp.</em> as the organism and P-C-K-BK as the substrate combination for further development. Following the determination of the organism and substrate, biocomposite production parameters were optimized through solid-state fermentation, and the performance criteria of the produced biocomposites were evaluated. For this purpose, Central Composite Design (CCD) was applied for the first time in the literature, and the inoculum amount, incubation time, and mixing frequency were optimized by measuring laccase activity. Within the same experimental design, mechanical, thermal, and acoustic performance outputs were modeled and quantitatively evaluated. CCD optimization tests yielded flexural strength up to 1.037 MPa, compressive strength reaching 34.6 MPa, thermal conductivity between 0.104 and 0.109 W/m·K, and sound absorption coefficients between 0.23 and 0.367 in the 500–1000 Hz frequency band. The processability of the mycelium biocomposite samples was demonstrated through CNC cutting, punching, and drilling, and gamma-shielding properties were observed, with 9.3 % attenuation for Am-241 (59.5 keV) and 4.9 % for Cs-137 (662 keV). Taken together, the use of laccase activity as a response variable in the statistical optimization of mycelium composite production, the simultaneous optimization of mechanical–thermal–acoustic outputs, the demonstration of conventional processability, and the identification of gamma-ray shielding capability constitute the original contributions of this study to the literature.</p>