How biomanufacturing creates sustainable solutions

Posted: March 24, 2025

Growing up on his family's farm in Vermont, Eben Bayer was fascinated by how fungi glued together piles of wood chips. "The forest has always been a source of inspiration for me and a place of peace, and it was part of the inspiration behind the concept of using mycelium as a binder to grow materials," he told the European Patent Office (EPO).

So when he met Gavin McIntyre at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, who, like him, was studying mechanical engineering and product design, they began exploring the potential of agricultural waste as a sustainable material. The two students wondered if the natural process that allowed fungi to bind wood chips together could be used to create something useful. "We've leveraged natural materials as humans for centuries. It was really interesting that the kingdom of fungi has been completely unexplored and untapped from a material perspective. So that really provided us with a whole open field to explore," McIntyre added in the same interview.

The pair eventually funded Ecovative Design, a materials company that produces alternatives to plastics and polystyrene foams for packaging, building materials and other applications by using mushroom technology.

What is biomanufacturing?

Traditional manufacturing often involves extracting raw materials from the earth and processing them into products.

Biomanufacturing uses living organisms, such as bacteria, fungi, or algae, to produce materials and chemicals by mimicking processes perfected by nature over millennia. The process typically involves cultivating microorganisms in bioreactors under controlled conditions. These convert simple, renewable feedstocks, such as plant sugars or waste products, into complex molecules.

How biomanufacturing is transforming sustainable manufacturing

At Ecovative Design, Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre’s team are using fungal mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, to create sustainable biomaterials. Mycelium is a natural network of thread-like, branched, and entangled filaments that acts as a “glue,” binding materials together. This binging action is largely due to chitin, a natural polymer also found in the exoskeletons of crustaceans like lobsters and crabs. During the growth process, the mycelium consumes the agricultural waste, such as hemp hurd, transforming it into the final material, biodegradable products like packaging and furniture components.

They feed live mycelium with agricultural residues in molds at room temperature for several days. The mycelium grows naturally, weaving itself into durable structures without the need for light or chemical additives. Once the material achieves the desired shape, it is dried and baked to deactivate the fungi and ensure stability.

Ecovative’s patented material MycoComposite™ is used for lightweight, water-resistant packaging and interior design that can fully compost within 45 to 180 days, breaking down into nutrients that enrich the soil after use. MycoFlex™ refers to their mycelium foam, used in various applications, and AirLoom™ is their mycelium-based leather alternative.

"Our mycelium materials are healthy for the planet because they are strong and durable, grown with a fraction of the energy of conventional plastics. And at the end of this material's useful life, you can actually compost it in your garden," Bayer told EPO.

Ecovative also uses a sophisticated platform called AirMycelium that integrates sensors to monitor environmental conditions during mycelium growth. This system generates a wealth of data, which is then fed to machine learning algorithms to analyze how variations in these conditions affect mycelium growth. The goal is to optimize growth conditions for maximum yield and efficiency.

This level of data-driven optimization allows them to create consistent, high-performing materials that have attracted partnerships with major global brands like IKEA and Dell.

Companies are investing in biomanufacturing

Other companies, such as Magical Mushroom Company in the UK, are exploring different aspects of mycelium's potential. Ecovative itself has also spun off MyForest Foods, formerly Atlast Food Co., which produces MyBacon, an imitation bacon made from oyster mushroom mycelium. Ecovative is also exploring the use of mycelium as a building material, with applications in structural bricks and insulation.

Another example is MycoWorks, cofounded by two artists, Philip Ross and Sophia Wang and launched in 2020. Ross worked at the intersection of art, design and biotechnology for over three decades, while Wang had collaborated with Ross on a series of programs about the culture and history of bioreactor design.

Over the years, they have optimized mycelium cultivation conditions to create a material with the look and feel of traditional leather, with which they target the fashion and luxury goods markets, yet without the environmental impact associated with animal agriculture.

“There are a lot of other folks getting into mycelium,” Bayer told Food Tank. “It’s wonderful to see because the world is not solved by silver bullets; it’s solved by lots of people working on convergent solutions because these are big markets, and they need lots of different approaches.”