WO2020136447A1

WO2020136447A1 - Agricultural wastes-based organic composite material for structure and non-structure bound by fungus and method of production thereof

Info

Publication number: WO2020136447A1
Application number: PCT/IB2019/056599
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mohamad Arekha BENTANGAN; Adi Reza Nugroho; Ronaldiaz Hartantyo; Robbi Zidna Ilman; Erlambang AJIDARMA; Muhammad Yusuf NURHADI
Original assignee: Mycotech Pte. Ltd.
Priority date: 2018-12-26
Filing date: 2019-08-02
Publication date: 2020-07-02

Abstract

Present invention provides a board composite material for construction or, preferably for construction, using cellulose material bound by fungus. Composite material raw materials of the present invention is fungus growing media as well as material being bound and fungus binding fungus growing media materials. Fungus growing media consists of mixture of lime, bran, and agricultural wastes containing cellulose, excluding pilel, sawdust, and palm cluster. The present invention is characteristized by fungus growing media with weight composition of bran, lime, and cellulose wastes are 5-25%, 1-2%, and 65-95%. Another aspect of the present invention provides the method of producing composite material from fungus consisting of material preparation step; producing baglog; sterilizing baglog media; producing liquid/solid inoculum seeds; inoculating baglog in a plastic container; first incubating; moulding; second incubating; drying up; optionally, clamping (sandwich); hot pressing and cooling down; optionally, trimming; and optionally, coating and finishing.

Description

AGRICULTURAL WASTES-BASED ORGANIC COMPOSITE MATERIAL FOR STRUCTURE AND NON-STRUCTURE BOUND BY FUNGUS AND METHOD OF

PRODUCTION THEREOF

Technical Field of Invention

Present invention relates to a composite material for both construction or non-construction using cellulose material which is bound by fungus. Particularly, the present invention provides material compositions which uses several agricultural waste and agricultural processing waste which are easily to compile and cheap as cellulose material, bound by mycelial fungus to produce a material with designed strength, elasticity and plastic properties .

Background of Invention

Wood, plastic or metal materials are widely used for buildings and structures or non-construction such as for furniture, partition, cabinets or crafts. This is due to said materials provide several advantages, wherein wood material is organic, environmentally friendly and renewable. The metal material is nonorganic substance which difficult to decompose and nonrenewable thus non-environmentally friendly. In addition, the raw materials are mining product having limited stock and costly due to its long and expensive process. Plastic material is flexible to be formed as mass productions, but it is non- environmentally friendly due to some chemical substances therein .

Currently, there are several wood materials that are widely used in the market, that is Particle Board/LDF, Media Density Fiberboard/MDF, and Plywood. Particle Board or also known as LDF (Low Density Fiberboard) is made from a set of small pieces of wood, wood dust, powder and wood fibers assembled as one by synthetic resin and other adhesives then pressed and extruded into pieces. Its density is about 160-450 kg/m³. This material is advantageous in weight and price, while the disadvantages are non-waterproof and moisture, less smooth surface, hardly finishing with paint, low strength, and not durable.

Media Density Fiberboard, abbreviated MDF, is a wood-based artificial material made by mixture of pieces and wood fibers with resin and a wax-like. This mixture is then compacted and pressed. The density of MDF is higher than LDF, ranging from 500-1000 kg/m³. MDF is denser and stronger than the Particle Board. The price is cheaper than Plywood. The surface is smooth so that it is easy to coat with veneer. Likewise Particle Board, MDF is less adaptive to screw since it contains fine particles. Because it is denser, the MDF is heavier and harder than Plywood and tends to dull any cutter. The MDF is suspected by WHO of containing carcinogens .

Plywood or known by the multiplex is made in wood-based material made from thin sheets of wood are glued and pressed into large sheet with certain thickness. Triplex is also included in Plywood category. Currently, plywood is available in the market with various types of material such as pine wood, sengon wood and sungkai wood and with varying thickness, 6 mm, 9 mm, 12 mm, 15 mm, 18 mm and 24 mm. The advantages of Plywood are its weather resistance and moisture, its hardness and strength are higher than the other two materials, so as the main part of furniture, and waterproof. Plywood's disadvantages are relatively expensive, its surface is often not smooth and even (sometimes a wavy surface is found), it is necessary to use a nail gun or steel nail in the process, less precise dimension, less precise dimensions, it is difficult to directly coated the paint wherein the sanding and coating process is needed. Wood material faces scarcity due to the speed of wood consumption is greater than the speed of cultivation. This causes wood material to be more expensive.

Recently, there are many efforts to increase the availability of wood material by replacing the type of tree from the old type of harvest to the fast harvest period. Besides that, it also uses wood material from soft wood such as wood composite materials, that is wood fiber board or fiberboard that use softwood chips (wood chips) . The wood chips are then bonded with a chemical adhesive, that is resin and given pressure to increase the density and strength. This type of material uses chemical adhesives that are harmful to health and volatile. In addition, this material is non-elastic or plastic or brittle so that its strength is low.

There are also efforts to provide substances or building materials from organic material which are environmentally friendly and renewable. Among them using natural cellulose material and fungus. For example, US Patent Application No. 2009/0307969 A1 discloses a method for growing a fungal fruiting bodies needed to produce mycelium from selected fungi in an environment that suitable for fertilizing fungal primordium in organisms. In the patent, the fungus used is Pleurotus Ostreatus or Polyporus squamosus with substrate materials used to grow the fungus is a mixture of rye seeds, pearlite minerals and gypsum or sawdust and gypsum or cotton, cotton seed husks and gypsum. Some of the materials used in the invention are difficult to obtain besides the strength of the material produced is unclear.

Another Patent Application about fungus-based organic material is US Patent No. 2012/0135504 A1 which discloses a method for growing organically derived building materials in the form of a moldable substrate to be widely used in manufacturing and construction. Fungus used in this patent is from family of Ganoderma lucidum, G. Tsugae, G. Oregonense, Fomes fomentarius, Trametes versicolor, or Piptoporous betulinus, which are grown in media made of cellulose and materials is added to improve the quality of materials such as pearlite, silica, methyl cellulose, glycerin and agarose. This patent application is not discloses the cellulose material used in particular and the material properties especially the strength of the material.

In another invention, US Patent Application No. 20080145577A1, discloses a composite material comprising discrete particles and tissue created from mycelial cells which bind those particles. Composite material used is made by inoculating discrete particles and nutritious material with fungus. This invention claims the method of producing composite material which consists of the steps to prepare inoculum, preparing a mixture of discrete particle and nutrient material, adding an inoculum to the mixture and allowing the fungus grow in the mixture to form a tissue of mycelial cells. This invention uses a common method wherein it is unclear how to handle high temperature and humid so that this invention is inapplicable for tropical areas.

Some of the previous inventions in Indonesia disclose fungus cultivation, such as Patent Application No. P00199501591 disclosing novel artificial casing for fungus cultivation; Patent Application No. P00199501638 disclosing a support that is able to encourage the growth of mycellium and carpophore development; and Patent Application No. P00201506783 disclosing the industrial scale process of Ganoderma lucidum mycelium cultivation. Another previous invention also discloses the use of this fungus, such as Patent Application No. P15201603542 disclosing a starter production from fungus Coprinus comatus isolate to increase quality of rice straw as ruminant feed.

Indonesian Patent Application No. P00201705559 entitled "Organic Composite Material for Agricultural Wastes-Based Non Structure Bound by Fungus and a method To produce" describes a composite material for non-structure with a method to produce consisting of material preparation step, mixing the material, producing baglog, sterilizing baglog media, producing liquid/solid inoculum, inoculating baglog, moulding, drying up, clamping, and trimming. This invention claims wastes of pilel, sawdust, and palm cluster to produce nonstructure composite. This method produce composite with hollows on the surface, bright colors, its characteristic such as foam and spons, elasticity and easily deformed by pressure. This elasticity sometimes is unwanted for certain products. This invention is not provide composite material required for structural.

Therefore, required an invention providing board composite material from organic materials which is environmentally friendly, based on cellulose and bound by fungus, whereas said cellulose materials are easily obtained and cheap since uses material of agricultural wastes and agricultural processing wastes. This composite can be used as construction and non construction material. The composite material characteristics, such as elasticity, plastic, and strength, are also adjusted by replacing their constituent materials.

Brief Description of Invention

The present invention provides a board composite material for structure or nonstructure and a method of producing thereof. Composite material according to the present invention uses cellulose sources bound by mycelial fungus, wherein growing media thereof uses lime, bran, and agricultural wastes containing cellulose, for example, but not limited to, sugarcane wastes, corn wastes, leave wastes, husk, rice straw, fruit skin, plant skin, empty palm cluster, and palm mesocarp, excluding pilel, sawdust, and palm cluster.

The present invention is characteristized by fungus growing media with weight compositions of bran, lime, and agricultural wastes containing cellulose are 5-25%, 1-2%, and 65-95%.

Brief Description of Figure

Figure 1 shows flowchart of a method to produce board composite material of present invention. Figure 2 shows comparation of photo for composite appearance of the present invention (A) and conventional composite (B) , i.e. production of an application method according to Indonesian Patent Application No. P00201705559.

Detail Description Invention

In one aspect, the present invention provides a board composite material for construction or non construction, preferably for construction, uses cellulose material bound by fungus. The present invention uses some agricultural wastes that are easily obtained and cheap as cellulose material bound by mycelial fungus thus produce a material with good strength and adjustable elasticity and plasticity.

Material construction is known as material of component to bear loads of structure. In other words, non construction material is material of non-loads component of structure. Since this material has high strength, it is more preferable used as material construction.

Raw materials used for composite material of the present invention consist of fungus growing media which functions as bound material and binder at once. Fungus growing media consists of mixtures of lime, bran, and agricultural wastes containing cellulose, for example, but not limited to, sugarcane wastes, corn wastes, leave wastes, husk, rice straw, fruit skin, plant skin, empty palm cluster, and palm mesocarp, excluding pilel, sawdust, and palm cluster. The present invention is characteristized by fungus growing media with weight compositions of bran, lime, and cellulose material wastes are 5- 25%, 1-2%, and 65-95%.

Lime used in the present invention is common lime in the market. Similarly, bran used in the present invention is also common bran. Bran and lime used in dried condition.

Agricultural wastes containing cellulose of present invention is any agricultural wastes containing cellulose, such as sugarcane wastes, corn wastes, leave wastes, husk, rice straw, fruit skin, plant skin, empty palm cluster, palm mesocarp. Not included in the scope of this invention waste in the form of pile, wood powder and oil palm empty bunches. The waste in this invention is called a component of cellulose waste .

All cellulose wastes, including sugarcane, corn, leave, husk, rice straw, fruit skin, plant skin, empty palm cluster, and palm mesocarp, having characteristic of dried and difficult to damage so that it is not difficult to keep in storage.

Palm cluster has various characteristic, depends on weather during harvesting. Clusters harvested in the dry season are better than clusters in the rainy season. This is due to said palm cluster are found in dried condition, otherwise they are wet and humid in rainy season. Wet palm clusters need to be dried previously to reduce moist content and avoid contaminant microba. Dried clusters can be cut into aggregates of 2-5 cm. However, this size is disadvantageous for final product. Dried clusters shall be kept in dried storage and free of moist to avoid such contaminant.

Palm mesocarp is a part of palm fruit. This material is also used in dried condition. In common palm processing industry, said mesocarp are not useful and dumped as wastes.

Calculation of compositions for producing material as example of embodiment present invention is as follow. Weight of bran and lime are each of 5-20% and 1-2% from total weight of growing media. Meanwhile cellulose wastes weight is 65-95%. In this case bran, lime, and cellulose wastes as dried weight. According to present invention, the properties of material strength can be adjusted by changing the compositions of cellulose wastes and other raw materials.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of producing composite material consisting of cellulose material bound by fungus. The method of producing composite material in accordance with the present invention consists of steps:

a. preparing raw materials; b. producing baglog;

c. sterilizing baglog media;

d. producing liquid/solid inoculum seeds;

e. inoculating baglog within a plastic;

f. first incubating;

g. moulding;

h. second incubating;

i. drying up;

j. optionally, clamping (sandwich);

k. hot pressing and cooling down;

l. optionally, trimming;

m. optionally, coating and finishing.

Preparing raw materials step further consists of:

• drying up;

• putting said dried cellulose wastes into a plastic/container and weighing required composition;

• tagging/labeling the container which contained information date of weighing and the content; and

• putting in the container containing cellulose wastes into refrigerator for durability 1-2 weeks or into freezer for durability 4-6 weeks.

Producing baglog step for fungus growth media which further bind baglog materials into composite material in accordance with further present invention consists of:

• producing a mixture by mixing the material until they are homogeneously mixed;

• adding water gradually into said mixture;

• putting in the mixture into a plastic container;

• weighing the material mixture in the plastic container;

• compacting the baglog with pressure; and

• providing closure.

Media is sterilized by pressure and heat, preferably by autoclave under temperature of 121°C for 100-120 minutes. Then the media is cooled down to ambience temperature (27-30°C) . In producing liquid inoculum step, it is required PDB powder ( Potato Dextrose Broth), aquades, plug (cotton and cassa) , paper, plastic, rubber, fungus culture, spatula, alcohol 70%, spirits and tissue. This further step consists of:

• preparing media to be inoculated;

• planting mycelial fungus to media being inoculated; and

• obtaining inoculated media.

Preparing media being inoculated step further consists of:

• weighing PDB ( Potato Dextrose Broth) powder as necessary;

• putting in PDB media into Erlenmeyer glass;

• dissolving with aquades as necessary;

• boiling up with stirring by a mixer;

• covering the erlenmeyer glass with plug;

• covering with paper and plastic then embed with rubber; and

• sterilizing by autoclave with temperature 121°C for 15-30 minutes, in order to produce sterilized liquid PDB.

Step of planting mycelial fungus inside the sterilized PDB further consists of:

• preparing PDA ( Potatoes Dextrose Agar) having mycelial fungus;

• cutting and harvesting PDA with mycelial fungus thereon by sterilized spatula;

• opening the plug on the erlenmeyer containing sterilized PDB media;

• putting in PDA containing mycelial into liquid PDB media aseptically; and

• recovering the erlenmeyer glass with plug.

Inoculated media obtaining step further consists of:

• placing Erlenmeyer glass containing liquid PDB with mycelial fungus on shaker-incubator; and

• incubating with speed of agitation of 150-200 RPM (as necessary, the larger of erlenmeyer, the higher RPM) under temperature of 25°C for 7x24 jam.

Inoculating fungus seeds on liquid PDB media into baglog step further consists of steps as follow: • taking the liquid inoculum of 5 mL aseptically by micropipet with sterile tip (121°C for 30 minutes);

• removing plug cotton on baglog;

• putting in the liquid inoculum into steril baglog; and

• covering baglog with plug.

First incubation proceeds for 4-6 weeks under temperature of 25°C in open room. The media will seem covered by mycellium fungus on whole parts.

The moulding step against media which bound by mycelial fungus to container further consists of:

• preparing container to be steril;

• producing aseptic area by cleaning up its surface by alcohol 70% and burning with spirit within that aseptic area so it becomes a space to receive media inside baglog;

• loosening and removing the plug baglog within aseptic area;

• shattering baglog manually or mechanically, preferably up to 1-10 cm diameter. The benefit is shorter growing period and avoids contaminant.

• Pouring baglog into that steril mould;

• flattening material in the mould;

• pressing by a tool;

Second incubation proceeds under temperature of 25°C in opening room for 4-7 days until mycelial grows on all surface of material .

Drying up step proceeds over material media with uniformly grow mycelial. This is removing material from mould, then heating up by a heater under temperature of 50-100°C until the materials remain less than 10%.

Clamping optionally proceeds against composite material. This function to enhance appearance of composite board surface or to strengthen the composite board. Whether clamping proceeds, this further consists of steps as follow:

• flattening material with circular saw to uniform size; • embedding said clamping material (sandwich) on surface or in between composite materials bound by fungus with adhesive material or not; and

• Refining the surface of clamping material by abbrasives or other tools.

Clamping materials useful for composite material of the present invention are laminated bamboo, paper, wood, Plywood, triplex, composite mycelial or other materials.

The dried material is fed into a hot pressure tool. This heat press step is treating with pressure of 5-30 MPa with a surface temperature of 80-150°C to make the material a board.

The pressed material is released and pulled out from heat press tool. Then the board media is moved to a cooler to lower the temperature into ambience. This hot pressure affects significantly in high strength composite production.

Optionally, trimming proceeds by flattening said composite material, cutting into certain sizes, and refining the surface. Meanwhile, coating proceeds by covering with selected material. This coating refers to common activity in the art. This is conducted by providing thinned acrylic coating or organic coating to protect from weather and environment.

Finishing step is also optionally proceeds by, for example trimming and cleaning up. This step does not provide any chemical treatment, and merely physical one.

Further it shows comparation of appearance for composite material fungus of the present invention with conventional composite in Figure 1. Produced composite board has even surface and smoother, possess unique pattern of surface, solid characteristic, rigid and hard, not easily to deform when pressed; compared to conventional composite mycellium where there are cavities on the surface, lighter colors, characteristics like foam and sponge, elastic and easily deformed when pressed. Based on laboratorium test, it is provided characteristic comparation as in Table 1.

Table 1

Another aspect of the present invention provides using of composite produced by a method of the present invention for structure and nonstructure, preferably for structure such as material buildings to substitute MDF, Particle Board and Plywood, as well as main material for furniture, ceilings, decorative walls panel, or partition panel.

The terms in the present invention refer to common understanding in the art. A person skilled in the art will understand variations thereto. However, insofar as it is not technically different, these variations can be considered to be covered within the scope of this invention.

"Weight" term used here is a common understanding in the art, it is in kilogram or gram.

Claims

1. A board composite material consists of bran, lime and growing media, wherein said growing media consists of wastes containing cellulose, for example, but not limited to, coffee waste, sugarcane waste, corn waste, leave waste, husk, rice straw, fruit skin, plant skin, empty palm cluster, and palm mesocarp, excluded pilel, sawdust, and palm cluster, characteristized by weight composition of bran, lime, and waste material containing cellulose of 5-25%, 1-2%, and 65-

95%.

2. The board composite material according to claim 1, wherein said board composite material having compressive strength of 20 MPa to 35 MPa.

3. The method of producing board composite material according to claim 1 to 2 , consisting of:

a. preparing raw materials;

b. producing baglog;

c. sterilizing baglog media;

d. producing liquid/solid inoculum seeds;

e. inoculating baglog inside a plastic container;

f. first incubating;

g. moulding;

h. second incubating;

i. drying up; and

j . hot pressing and cooling down.

4. The method of producing board composite material according to claim 3, wherein the hot pressing is proceeded by treating with pressure of 5-30 MPa with a heat surface temperature of 80-150°C.

5. The method of producing board composite material according to claim 3 to 4, wherein further consists of clamping (sandwich), trimming, coating and finishing.

6. The method of producing board composite material as any one of claim 3 to 5, wherein further step g, moulding, consists of shattering baglog manually or mechanically, preferably into agregates of 1-10 cm diameter.

7. The use of board composite material produced from material and method according to claim 1 to 6, for structure and nonstructure, preferably for structure, for example, but not limited to, as building material substitute for MDF, Particle Board and Plywood, as well as main material of furniture, ceiling panels, wall decorative panel, or partition panel.