Development of Fungal Leather-like Material from Bread Waste
2021 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 80 credits / 120 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
Food waste and fashion pollution are two of the significant global environmental issues throughout the recent past. In this research, it was investigated the feasibility of making a leather-like material from bread waste using biotechnology as the bridging mechanism. The waste bread collected from the supermarkets were used as the substrate to grow filamentous fungi species Rhizopus Delemar and Fusarium Venenatum. Tanning of fungal protein fibres was successfully performed using vegetable tanning, confirmed using FTIR and SEM images. Furthermore, glycerol and a biobased binder treatment was performed for the wet-laid fungal microfibre sheets produced. Overall, three potential materials were able to produce with tensile strengths ranging from 7.74 ± 0.55 MPa to 6.92 ± 0.51 MPa and the elongation% from 16.81 ± 1.61 to 4.82 ± 0.36. The binder treatment enhanced the hydrophobicity even after the glycerol treatment, an added functional advantage for retaining flexibility even after contact with moisture. The fungal functional material produced with bread waste can be tailored successfully into leather substitutes using an environmentally benign procedure.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2021.
Keywords [en]
Leather, Fungal leather, Leather-like material, Food waste, Bread waste, Fungal material, Sustainable material, Filamentous fungi
National Category
Other Industrial Biotechnology Environmental Management Bioprocess Technology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-25522OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hb-25522DiVA, id: diva2:1565504
Supervisors
Examiners
2021-06-232021-06-142025-02-10Bibliographically approved