<
https://theconversation.com/fermented-clothing-heres-how-the-biofilm-on-kombucha-can-be-turned-into-green-textiles-228904>
"If you’ve ever made kombucha, you will be familiar with the term SCOBY – a
symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. It’s impossible to miss – it’s the
floating biofilm on top of your delicious drink.
While a SCOBY looks gross, it is remarkably versatile. If you feed it on sugar
and tea or coffee in large vats, it grows rapidly. The reason you need tea or
coffee is because caffeine contains nitrogen, which stimulates microorganism
growth. Species of bacteria in the SCOBY such as
komagataeibacter xylinus
have the curious ability to eat sugars and produce bacterial cellulose.
The reason we and other researchers are focused on this unusual substance is
because cellulose is extremely useful. Cotton is largely cellulose, as is flax,
which we use to produce linen. Cellulose from bacteria has the advantage of
being about ten times stronger than cotton.
Traditional methods of making the world’s clothes comes at a large
environmental cost. If we can scale up production of bacterial cellulose using
common materials such as sugar and tea, we might produce a new kind of
versatile, sustainable textile. In our new research, we use this cellulose to
make wallets and canvases for painting."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
