Mycelium-based-composites – cleaning and disinfection strategies for the production of biobased composites

Fossil-based materials have formed the basis of an almost endless range of technical products.Through variable chemical composition and several additives, especially polymers can have a wide range of properties, which form the basis for the diversity of plastic-based products.While this variability enables many sustainability strategies, such as lightweighting, it is also impeding a fully circular economy.A promising class of materials are composites based on fungal mycelium.However, the step to engineering materials requires production processes to be controllable within technical tolerances.At the same time, production processes must be scalable to ensure the necessary volumes can be produced on an industrial scale to replace fossil-based plastics on a broad scale.Before inoculation, it is crucial to inactivate, diminish or remove competing microorganisms and other contaminants present in the substrate or on mycelium contact surfaces.Otherwise, the product quality could be compromised, or the mycelium growth entirely retarded.This article analyses the state of the art in the production of mycelium-based composites and the associated cleaning and disinfection processes.It discusses how cleaning and disinfection processes can be adopted from food production in order to realize automatic production processes for fungal substrates.In addition, the environmental impact of different cleaning and disinfection processes of mycelium-based products are basically analyzed.Existing gaps are identified and approaches for closing them are discussed.