Building materials from mushrooms
20 million euros for fungal biotechnology and spatial sociology
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The German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved three collaborative research centers; TU Berlin is involved in two as spokesperson and one as a cooperation partner. The newly approved CRC "MY-CO BUILD: Biotechnological production, characterization and sustainability assessment of mushroom-based building materials" will investigate the suitability of mushrooms as a material for construction and furniture production. The extended CRC "Re-Figuration of Spaces" will be dedicated for another four years to the question of how societies worldwide are reorganizing themselves under the influence of digitalization, migration, ecological crises and geopolitical changes - with a focus on spaces and their meanings (see press release). Both approved CRCs together will be funded with over 20 million euros. In addition, the SFB "Ultrafast Spin Dynamics" of the FU Berlin and the University of Halle, which has also been extended, involves several institutes of the TU Berlin.
The Collaborative Research Centre 1743 "MY-CO BUILD: Biotechnological production, characterization and sustainability assessment of mushroom-based building materials" is developing a new class of mushroom-based materials that are biologically produced and biodegradable from renewable raw materials from agriculture and forestry in the field of basic research. The potential of fungal biotechnology is being exploited for the research and development of these materials. "Our aim is to lay the scientific foundations for defined manufacturing processes and reproducible property profiles of fungi-based materials," explains the spokesperson of the CRC, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Vera Meyer, head of the "Applied and Molecular Microbiology" department at TU Berlin. This includes the systematic establishment of a process chain that takes into account all biological and technological aspects in the manufacturing process from the nano to the macro scale and thus enables targeted material design.
Interdisciplinary research into fungal materials for the first time
For the first time, the CRC brings together various specialist disciplines in an interdisciplinary network to investigate the biological, mechanical, physical, chemical, thermal, acoustic and architectural property profiles of fungus-based materials. These property profiles are determined by the genetic make-up of the fungal production organism used, the agricultural and forestry substrates for fungal growth and the manufacturing and processing methods. In order to be able to describe, understand and predict interactions on all scales, new mathematical models supported by numerical simulations are being developed. "These models will then make it possible to tailor the design of material properties," says Meyer.
AI-based predictions on sustainability In addition to the fundamental understanding of the relationships between the structural elements and the properties of the mushroom-based materials, systematic stability and ageing tests accompanying development as well as AI-based sustainability predictions are being established. "With the processes and procedures developed here, the CRC aims to break new inter- and transdisciplinary ground for the development and establishment of biogenic and sustainable materials that are not possible with existing methods," explains Vera Meyer.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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