Tomorrow’s materials might be grown, not made.
Materials science is stepping up its role in urgently delivering sustainability. For example, few innovations better embody this promise than what a team of Chinese scientists has achieved with fungi and waste wood.
Their creation — a new class of biodegradable, moldable, and fire-retardant structural material — combines the ecological elegance of natural systems with the performance metrics demanded by modern industry. It’s lightweight, strong, flame-resistant, and designed for a circular economy. More importantly, it could stand in for the petroleum-based foams and panels used throughout packaging, construction, and interiors — from the Arctic Circle to the Alps.
From Woody Waste to High-Performance Panels
The research team from Sichuan University and the Tianfu Yongxing Laboratory [30.6°N, 104.1°E] developed their material by fusing two natural processes: fungal growth and mineralisation.
First, they took waste woody biomass, crushed it into particles, and combined it with flour and water. Into this mixture they introduced a fungus — Coriolus versicolor — whose thread-like mycelium grew throughout the matrix, naturally binding it together into a lightweight, spongy solid. This phase alone creates a structure with excellent moldability and biodegradability.
But then comes the innovation: the structure is soaked in a calcium chloride solution followed by sodium bicarbonate, leading to the formation of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) throughout the material. This mineralisation step doesn’t just make the material stronger and stiffer. It dramatically improves its fire resistance, thermal stability, and load-bearing capacity — qualities critical in real-world use.
The result is a mineralised mycelium wood (MMW), with performance comparable — and in some cases superior — to popular commercial foams such as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polyurethane (PU).
Implications Beyond Buzzwords
Presently, packaging materials and insulation panels made from plastic foams are cheap, versatile, and omnipresent. But they’re also derived from fossil fuels, difficult to recycle, and often flammable. They release toxic gases when they burn and can persist in landfills for centuries.
MMW addresses all of this at once.
- It’s renewable, made from agricultural and forestry waste.
- It’s moldable, enabling use in complex forms without toxic adhesives.
- It’s fire-retardant, self-extinguishing in tests and producing vastly less smoke.
- It’s biodegradable, disappearing in soil within 150 days.
- It’s recyclable, easily broken down and reused for new parts.
For construction professionals, circular economy planners, or product designers looking for credible alternatives to petroleum-based foams, this is not incremental change. This is a new material logic entirely.
Stronger Than It Looks — and Cooler, Too
The paper reports some impressive mechanical data: MMW with 45% CaCO₃ content withstands more than 5 MPa of compressive stress and can support 70 kg without deformation — outperforming commercial foams in strength, rigidity, and energy absorption.
And unlike most foams, which soften quickly under heat, MMW retains its shape up to 250°C and blocks heat far more effectively. In infrared testing, it kept its outer surface under 60°C even when sitting on a 250°C plate for 10 minutes — a performance leap with serious implications for thermal insulation and fire protection.
Its smoke and heat emissions under combustion are dramatically lower than conventional materials, suggesting its value not just in buildings but also in public transport interiors, electronics packaging, or any situation where flame spread is a risk.
A Material That Ends Where It Began
What sets MMW apart is not only how it performs but how it degrades. After use, it doesn’t require special disposal. Bury it, and it naturally breaks down into soil nutrients and minerals. Its lignocellulose content decomposes like wood mulch. Its calcium carbonate reintegrates into the geological carbon cycle.
Better still, if not degraded, it can be mechanically recycled — simply ground up and added to new fungal growth to make a new part. No chemical processing. No landfill.
This is rare: a truly closed-loop material that is both bio-origin and bio-destined.
Designing With Life — Not Against It
For businesses seeking to future-proof their operations against tightening environmental regulations, materials like MMW offer a serious advantage. Unlike many bioplastics that still depend on industrial composting or energy-intensive recycling, this system is low-tech, scalable, and aligned with nature’s own material cycles.
It’s also flexible. The same process can be adapted to different waste streams, shapes, and performance targets — from acoustic wall panels to custom-moulded protective packaging.
In Northern Europe and Canada, where building standards are high, transport distances are long, and environmental values are embedded, materials like this could form the basis of an entirely new class of products: safe, sustainable, and sourced locally.
A Glimpse of the Future
The most remarkable part of this innovation isn’t the numbers. It’s the mindset. The idea that the most advanced materials of the 21st century might not come from chemistry labs or plastic refineries, but from fungal cultures grown in damp rooms with recycled wood waste.
This isn’t back-to-nature thinking. It’s forward-looking industrial strategy — and a glimpse into a materials economy that works like a forest: building, decaying, and regenerating in perfect rhythm.
Source
Bioengineered upcycling of biomass waste into moldable, strong and flame-retardant structural materials, Industrial Crops & Products (Sept 2025), 2025-06-07
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