MYCOCIRCLE: Upcycling mushroom waste to replace animal derived chemicals

The MYCOCIRCLE project develops innovative technologies to create high-value, sustainable materials by valorizing a unique and abundant fungal waste stream. This work directly addresses the significant ethical and environmental concerns surrounding animal-derived products. Many everyday items in the cosmetics, pharmaceutical, and agrochemical industries rely on materials such as squalene from shark liver oil and chitin from crustacean shells, all of which are widely used despite growing sustainability issues.

 

Fungi offer a promising, cruelty-free alternative. Their biomass is naturally rich in chitin, and modern fermentation can convert fungal components into valuable microbial proteins, oils, and even squalene. However, scaling up this production faces major challenges, including limited availability of clean fungal biomass, competition with the food industry, and inefficient extraction processes that often yield low-value oils.

 

MYCOCIRCLE overcomes these hurdles by focusing on a massive and currently untapped resource: the 189 million tonnes of mycelium-rich waste generated annually by the edible mushroom industry. This waste stream is typically considered unsuitable for reuse because it is contaminated with the woody substrate on which the mushrooms grow. The project designs novel technologies to process this specific feedstock, including an enzymatic fractionation process, two parallel fermentation routes, and new enzymatic reactions for efficient chitin conversion. The resulting product streams—including fungal chitosan, a high-value squalene-rich oil, and microbial proteins—are then validated as direct replacements for animal-derived materials in cosmetic and agrochemical applications, creating a fully circular and ethical supply chain.

Our main tasks

• Groundwork for integrating SSbD principles
• Analysis of pre-selected substances
• Human and environmental safety assessment
• Environmental sustainability assessment
• Life cycle impact and social and economic sustainability assessment
• Exploitation strategy and plan
• MYCOCIRCLE project communication
• Impact monitoring and assessment

Partners

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT MÜNCHEN | GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE TRANSFORMATION GST | MAGYAR GOMBA | SINTEF | NORGES MILJO-OG BIOVITENSKAPLIGE UNIVERSITET | SVERIGES LANTBRUKSUNIVERSITET | IDENER.AI | GREEN IMPULSE | THG LABS | SOMYCEL

Start date – finish date

09 / 2025 - 08 / 2028