Have you ever thought of growing mushrooms in the walls of your house as an insulation? Well, you can start now. “Greensulate” is a renewable, biodegradable insulation material that is more cost effective than existing materials available today.
Ecovative will be testing their eco product called Greensulate over the next year to check that the building material can resist mold growth even if it becomes saturated by water.
Gavin McIntyre, and Eben Bayer invented Greensulate in 2006 when they were seniors at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. They later formed their Ecovative company in ordert to continue their work.
If McIntyre and Bayer are satisfied with the results of their own tests, they will hire a third-party testing firm to do more testing and, hopefully, certify that Greensulate meets ASTM standards.
Once that is proved, their biggest hurdle may well be penetrating the “entrenched building industry,” Bayer says. He and McIntyre—who have patented their product—think Greensulate has considerable advantages over competing materials, including cost.
Rice hulls used in the production of greensulate are agricultural garbage. They can be bought for about five dollars a ton. The product’s fibrous mycelium mushroom roots are free, because Bayer and McIntyre grow them, and recycled paper is readily available. There is no petroleum in their greensulate product, so prices are not affected by gas price rises, which all means that current material projections for greensulate are equal or below the existing cost of board insulations like polystyrene.
Greensulate is also a proved fire retardant: It withstood heat up to 1,112 degrees Fahrenheit (600 degrees Celsius). Bayer reports that, during their own tests he was able to hold a piece of Greensulate in his hand, blast the panel with an acetylene welding torch, and not feel heat on the other side.
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