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Traditionally bitumen, which is made by crude oil distillation, has been used to bind gravel and sand to create our highways and roads. However, Visibuilt is ready to replace the fossil fuel with mycelium, the root-like structure of fungi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Demand for bitumen is high: 90% of our roads are made with asphalt. According to a report published by the International Bitumen Emulsion Federation, the estimated global consumption of bitumen in 2022 was around 120 million tonnes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Visibuilt founder and food tech entrepreneur Line Kloster Pedersen came up with the idea of creating roads from fungi when running along mycelium-filled trails in the forest. Using a wood rot fungus taken from the Danish forests, Pedersen started creating a mycelium binder. As new roads in Europe also contain 30% recycled asphalt in a move to be more environmentally friendly, Pedersen needed to know whether the mycelium could grow in the presence of bitumen. Within six months she had a binder she could patent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The team create visiBIT by adding the mycelium to a substrate, which it uses as food, before placing it in a bioreactor to make it grow. The visiBIT binder is then sent to the asphalt factory to be mixed with rocks and recycled asphalt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The visiBIT is more energy efficient than bitumen. To create bitumen, crude oil must be refined at 400\u00b0C. Then, to work as a binder, the bitumen must be kept at 165 \u00b0C so it remains in a glue-like state and doesn\u2019t become solid. By contrast, the production of visiBIT needs no extra heat other than to briefly sanitize the substrate and rocks to prevent contamination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c[We can] build the pavements at room temperature, which is very unique for the road construction,\u201d says Pedersen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A road using visiBIT is laid the same way as with bitumen. However, while the bitumen will cool and cure within a day, it takes the visiBIT road two weeks to cure as the living mycelium needs time to form a mesh-like network around the aggregate. Once this is complete, the visiBIT team stops the mycelium\u2019s growth with a patented method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This isn\u2019t the first eco-friendly bitumen substitute. In 2022, Miscancell from Arnhem, the Netherlands, used lignin from elephant grass (Miscanthus giganteus<\/em>) to replace bitumen in roads. Lignin is the glue that holds plant fibers together, and Miscancell is using it to bind pavement. Also, in 2021 French civil engineering firm Colas from Boulogne-Billancourt used resin from pine trees and oil from plants to create sidewalks made with Vegecol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Visibuilt has now signed a deal with NCC, the largest asphalt producer in Scandinavia. By 2026, visiBIT will be used in bicycle lanes and car parks, and by 2028 Visibuilt believes it will be used on roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\nReference<\/h3>\n\n\n\n