The future is fungi – magic mushroom insulation

The future is fungi – magic mushroom insulation.

Ladies and gentlemen, enter Terraphyll mycelium insulation.

Ok, ok, alright, not quite magical but it’s definitely for real.

I heard about insulation made from mycelium, the vegetative part of a mushroom, a few years ago, and it wasn’t available on the market at the time, but I think it’s getting closer.

Mycelium insulation blocks are made by letting the fungus feed on a substrate such as sawdust and grow into a shaped mould. Filaments fuse together quickly and the growth can be stopped when the substance is dried, creating a rigid material that can be sanded and painted.

Performance and benefits of mycelium insulation

• Decent insulation performance, similar to mineral wool and wood fibre insulation.

• Decent fire safety, won’t burn or transmit fire easily, meant to be naturally self-extinguishing.

• It is quite strong but probably not suitable for loadbearing walls.

• Carbon negative with a circular lifecycle, which is awesome.

• Little to no VOC so contributes to nice and healthy indoor air quality.

• Versatile, lots of potential applications.

• Compostable, just rots down into the environment after use, doesn’t stick around for decades.

• Made from natural biogenic materials, so very environmentally friendly.

• Remanufacturable, which means it can be disassembled, cleaned, and restored to a ‘like-new’ condition.

Sustainable feedstocks and industry potential

Terraphyll can be made out of some waste that naturally results from agricultural and industrial processes. This is a departure from a reliance on specific raw materials and a massive reduction on carbon intensive supply chain resilience [the proper techy name for this type of process is called ‘feedstock-agnostic’]. I think the technology has been around for nearly twenty years now and may have started in the USA.

Low impact, bio-based / organic building materials are becoming more popular and it’s easy to see why.

While not on the market yet I think it will be relatively soon. Not sure how cheap this will be but hopefully not too expensive. Not sure how robust mycelium insulation is either and how easily it decays, if unwanted moisture sits around, such as an unexpected and undetected roof leak.

A UK company who have been researching and producing mushroom insulation is BIOHM. Go check them out. They are also doing some other interesting things with buildings and biological building systems.

Image credits > BIOHM.