VITAL

Introduction

Over the past decades, the potential of biobased side streams has regained industrial attention. “Side” streams can be converted into a huge variety of industrially relevant chemicals but generally score better than fossil-based products in terms of ecological impact. Crustacean chitin, for instance, is a natural biopolymer that can be converted into chitosans, a class of biopolymers with certain length and acetylation degree. The activity of chitosans strongly depends on these metrics and we are only starting to understand how they affect their usefulness for an application. Unfortunately, crustacean derived chitosan is limited to applications in which allergies are of no concern, causing severe constraints to their applicability. Additionally, chitosan production from crustaceans requires high temperatures and harsh chemical conditions and hence, has a big environmental impact. Fungal chitosan on the other hand is not limited by these constraints, increasing their application potential. Therefore, it makes sense to develop a process for chitosan production from fungal “waste” streams and explore their application potential.

Traditionally, fungal side streams have barely been valorized due to technological challenges and because economies were organized in a linear way. Today societies understand the importance of circular economies and hence, fungal side streams have regained huge attention. We now understand that they can serve as a sustainable feedstock for high end applications, instead of low-cost cattle feed. Indeed, the high amount of chitin and beta-glucans present in mycelia can be used to derive high-end products useful in cosmetics, packaging, textile, nutrition, and agriculture among others. In contrast to crustaceans, which contain solely crystalline chitin, mycelium consists of amorphous chitin. Hence, it should be possible to coproduce chitosans and beta-glucans under much milder conditions, resulting in products with a lower footprint and without allergens. Moreover, fungal sources have lower interbatch variation and are available year-round, allowing for a steady supply with consistent and traceable composition, unlike crustacean sources.

Hence, by co-valorizing the chitin and beta-glucans in mycelium biomass, VITAL aims to contribute to the development of low-impact bio-based materials that could replace non-biodegradable polymers, thereby supporting a circular (bio)economy. The project’s findings may lead to advanced, eco-friendly textile treatments and packaging applications, reducing reliance on fossil-based plastics, and catalyzing a transition towards a more sustainable industry.

Objectives

The SPC-ICON project VITAL aims to extract, convert and valorize the fungal chitin as present within protein free mycelium towards tailored chitosan hydrolysates/derivatives suitable for specific applications in textiles and packaging. To achieve the general objective, the following sub-objectives are formulated: 

1. To develop a circular production process to obtain chitosan and β-glucan from mycelium.

2. To develop a tunable and continuous enzymatic process for production of chitosan derivatives tailored for their applications in packaging and textile’s functional finishes.

3. To identify the optimal chitosan type as the basis of product development for textile applications and packaging.

Consortium

The project consortium is strategically positioned throughout the entire value chain: Citribel as a supplier of fungal biomass, VITO and Centexbel as knowledge institutions focusing on innovative conversion and application technologies, Devan as a specialty chemical producer and developer of textile finishes, Alsico as a textile producer, and Allnex as bio-based packaging resin producer. The research consortium will be supported by an industrial advisory board that, amongst others, will evaluate the biocompatibility of this vegan fungal chitin. The project is supported by the spearhead clusters Catalisti and Flanders’ FOOD.