Mycelium Growth Bed with Passive Gas Control for Uniform Leather-Like Growth
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for growing mycelium-based materials, particularly leather-like mycelium, are costly, complex, prone to contamination, and fail to produce consistent thickness, uniformity, and mechanical properties due to the need for elaborate control systems and multiple transfer steps, often resulting in fruiting body formation.
Innovation Solution
A mycelium growth bed with a tray, conveying platform, permeable membrane, substrate, and lid, configured to control CO2, O2, and humidity levels to promote vegetative mycelium growth without fruiting bodies, using a substrate mix of hardwood, softwood, and rye grains, with a permeable membrane and porous material to ensure even growth and easy removal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional methods using bottles, bags, or troughs are used for mycelium growth, then fruiting bodies can be produced, but the process becomes complex, costly, and prone to contamination with multiple transfer steps
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple separate growth vessels and transfer operations into a single integrated growth bed system. The tray with substrate, permeable membrane, and lid creates a unified environment where mycelium can grow continuously without being transferred between bottles, bags, or troughs, thereby eliminating contamination risks associated with multiple transfers while reducing overall process complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The permeable membrane acts as an intermediary element that allows controlled gas exchange and moisture regulation between the mycelium growth environment and the external atmosphere. This mediator enables the system to maintain optimal growth conditions without requiring complex active control systems, simplifying the overall device while ensuring reliable contamination-free growth
2Manufacturing precision
If elaborate control systems are used to maximize mycelial growth, then consistent thickness and uniformity can be achieved, but production costs and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The growth bed design enables the mycelium to self-regulate its growth environment through the permeable membrane, which passively controls gas exchange and moisture levels. The substrate composition and bed configuration create inherent feedback mechanisms that maintain uniform mycelial growth without requiring external sensors, actuators, or complex control algorithms, thereby achieving manufacturing precision with minimal device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent optimizes specific parameters of the growth environment - including substrate composition (hardwood, softwood, rye grains), bed geometry, and membrane permeability - to create conditions that naturally promote uniform mycelial growth. By carefully selecting and controlling these physical and chemical parameters, consistent thickness and uniformity are achieved without elaborate active control systems
3Productivity
If multiple transfer steps are used in mycelium growth processes, then materials can be moved through production, but contamination risks and production costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple discrete transfer operations into a single continuous growth process within one sealed bed system. The mycelium grows directly in the tray from inoculation to harvest without being moved to intermediate vessels, eliminating the transfer steps that create contamination vectors while maintaining production efficiency through optimized bed design and substrate formulation
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system produces uniform, leather-like mycelium consistently without fruiting bodies, with controlled thickness and mechanical properties, reducing contamination risks and production costs by optimizing environmental conditions within the growth bed.
Implementation Method 1
a permeable membrane and porous material to ensure even growth and easy removal
Implementation Method 2
a permeable membrane and porous material to ensure even growth and easy removal
Data Source
AI summary
A mycelium growth bed for optimal production of pure mycelium or a pure mycelium composite with controlled or predictable properties, the bed comprising a tray, a conveying platform, a permeable membrane, a substrate, and a porous material. The permeable membrane is positioned on the conveying platform within the tray. The substrate is positioned on the permeable membrane and the porous material is positioned on top of the substrate. The system provides a configuration wherein the CO2 concentration is held above 3%, the relative humidity is held above 40% and the O2 concentration is held below 20% in steady state conditions to produce leather-like mycelium without fruiting bodies.