Progress 06/01/22 to 05/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audence(s) are small scale mushroom producers. Our goal is develop methods of sustainably processing substrates and producing high value mushroom in shipping containers. We also train undergraduate and gradatue students studying at University of Houston Changes/Problems:Due to the long lead time in receiving the incubators and substrate processing machines there was some delay in completing some of the milestones on time. Also, there were some delays in getting the approval for installing the shipping container testbed. We will make a formal no-cost extension of the project for one year to complete all the proposed project milestones. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This USDA project has helped to recruit and train undergraduate senior design students from mechanical engineering programs, capstone students from biotechnology programs and complete their research projects. It has also helped to recruit Ph.D., and M.S., students to complete their thesis on producing and processing mycelium and mushrooms using newly developed methods. It also helped us to receive an additional UH infrastructure grant to establish a permanent test best at UH to train and educate students and small scale mushroom producers. Some of the students and their completed projects are given below. Two biotechnology undergraduate students (Juhee Lim and Yiyi Zhang) completed a capstone project on the topic 'Evaluate growth promoting properties of fungus using trisaccharide's and plant enzyme extracts' in July 2022.? Three biotechnology undergraduate students (Dinithi Jayasinghe, Jazmin Valle and Rob Schmyler) completed a capstone project on the topic 'Producing mycelium and recycling spent mushroom substrate' in May 2023. Six biotechnology undergraduate students (Aaron Martinez, Jarod Nguygen, Aiden Tran, Caitlin Tran, Ha Truong, Swami Sundaravel) completed a capstone project on the topic 'Composting and Mixing SMS to Use as Casing Layer Materials for A. bisporus Cultivation' in December 2022. Four senior design students from mechanical engineering program (Adrian Gonzalez, Efrin Guerrero, Alex ?Reyes, Rumaldo Villaseñor) has jointly developed a 'Automatic Tumbling composter system to convert spent mushroom substrate as fertilizer and casing material to replace peat moss' using cement mixer in May 2023. Master student (Mengchuan Zhuang) defended his M.S. thesis on the topic 'Sequence Annotation of Edible Fungus Calocybe indica Using Different Bioinformatics Tools' in May 2023. Three Ph.D. students from (Mahsa Alian, Sandesh Risal, Ezra Wari) are researching 'Modeling small scale mushroom cultivation in shipping containers'. One M.S. student (Yiyi Zhang) received training on 'Evaluating the efficiency and economics of different sterilization methods'. Three Biotechnology undergraduate student (Ayser Muhammad, Isabella Sanchez Hernandez, Rohana Kuriakose) completed in summer undergraduate research project on 'Fractionating Chitin and Co-products from Pleurotus ostreatus Mushrooms' and presented the work at American Chemical Society (ACS) conference held in Indianapolis, IN in March 2023. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?For this funding period we have published two conference papers and are in the process of writing five other manuscripts that will be published in various peer reviewed scientific journals. We have developed a website to disseminate our research findings to mushroom growing communities and presented some of our research findings at the recently concluded ACS spring conference held in Indianapolis, IN. As the COVID traveling restrictions have been lifted, we will present our research finding at domestic and international conferences. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the third year, we are looking forward to installing the new testbed comprising of two 40-ft. shipping containers at UH Sugar Land campus that will have several infrastructures such as substate processing room, inoculation room and mushroom producing rooms with proper control system. The newly purchased substrate processing machines will be installed in one of the shipping containers and the processing method will be optimized to produce mycelium and mushrooms. This will help us to train high school, undergraduate, graduate students and small scale mushroom producers with hands-on experience with necessary training materials.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Substrate processing system: We have successfully placed the order for the substrate processing system comprising of a steam generator, substrate milling machine, substrate mixer and densification unit. We are anticipating delivery of the system at the end summer 2023 that will be installed in one of the two 40 ft. shipping containers that will be commissioned at UH Sugar Land campus. Shipping container testbed: We were successful in receiving a UH infrastructure grant ($320,000) that will be used to build a test bed comprising of two shipping containers. This funding will help to establish a permanent testbed at UH campus. Several small and medium scale mushroom producers will receive hands-on training by participating in a certification program. We have finalized the design, identified the vendor and are in the process of receiving approval from UH facilities to place order and install the containers at UH Sugarland campus at the end of summer 2023. Using image processing to harvest mushrooms: Image processing and data analysis is an emerging technology used to assess the size and quality of mushrooms to determine the growth rate and measure yield. In this paper, we report different steps involved in collecting and processing image data in a large-scale commercial mushroom farm. We have demonstrated the technical feasibility of measuring the quantity and yield at different stages of mushroom cultivation which can be automated in the future. Developing this technology would allow mushroom producers to adjust the microclimate conditions to get better yield and coordinate harvesting schedules when quality is at its peak to maximize their profit. To extract relevant information about the mushrooms at a specific time, we followed the 8 steps for the 1960 time-series images captured during the experiment. 1) Image reading and cropping, 2) Grayscale conversion, 3) Image segmentation, 4) Contrast adjustment, 5) Canny edge detection, 6) Stitching sub-images, 7) Masking out noise and 8) Circular Hough transform algorithm. The above steps were applied on the images we collected for this project. This work has been published the 2023 IEEE International Wireless Communications & Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC) and in IEEE conference proceeding in 2023. Steam conditioning of substrates and densification: Biotech capstone students completed a one semester project of substrate conditions using steam followed by densification using pelleting mill. The students identified the processing methods and successfully produced the biomass pellets. A master student has identified the protocols reported in the literature to evaluate the sterility of the densified biomass using an ATP measuring kit, culture plate and metagenomic analysis. Six different sterilization methods are currently being tested such as autoclaving, pasteurization, formalin, ozone, Bavistin and the newly developed method of steam conditioning followed by densification. We are in the process of checking the sterility of different sterilized substrates. Modeling small scale mushroom cultivation system: We have modeled a medium-scale mushroom farm with substrate storage and substrate processing. Unit operations such as milling, mixing, packing, sterilization, and mycelium inoculation to produce hundreds to a few thousand pounds of mushrooms per day using a 40-foot-long shipping container as a growth chamber. We used a computer-aided design (CAD) model in a software called SOLIDWORKS. We used substrate and processing condition information of oyster mushrooms growth conditions reported in the literature. We also evaluated the organization of different substrate beds packed in bottles, bags, and buckets to maximize the utilization of space and calculated the amount of oyster mushrooms that could be produced per container. This modeling study has helped us to determine the minimum footprint requirement to build a medium scale mushroom farm including the total number of required shipping containers. This will lay the foundation to estimate the cost of establishing such farm and return of investment based on the volume of mushroom produced. Similar modeling studies can be used to evaluate the cultivation of different varieties of mushrooms at different scales by varying the substrate combinations, packing methods, and growth conditions. We are in the process of summarizing this work and submitting two manuscripts. Micro and macroalgae to produce fungal mycelium and mushrooms: various types of micro- and macroalgae were evaluated as potential substrates for mycelium growth. The study aimed to explore the suitability of different algae species as a substrate for mushroom cultivation, focusing on the impact of algae on the growth and development of mycelium. Microalgae such as Chlorella and Spirulina were used, either alone or in combination, and were evaluated. Macroalgae, such as dulse, nori, wakame, kelp extract, Irish moss, and bladderwrack was evaluated. These species were selected for their high nutritional value and potential suitability as substrates for mushroom cultivation. Edible fungal mycelium requires a range of nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, amino acids, and lipids to grow and develop properly. All algae are rich in these essential nutrients, as well as other micronutrients like vitamins and minerals that are important for mycelial growth. By incorporating these natural growth-promoting compounds, the development and growth of the mycelium can be enhanced up to four folds, ultimately resulting in denser and more robust fungal networks. This represents an innovative approach to mushroom cultivation that has the potential to improve the yield and quality of mushroom production. We have proved the concept using Calacybe indica (a tropical edible fungus) and are planning to explore several other commercially important fungi. We have submitted a patent application to UH intellectual property office based on these research findings.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
1. Sandesh Risal, Venkatesh Balan, Weihang Zhu, Ezra Wari, Mahsa Alian, Modeling and Optimization of Shipping Container-based Mushroom Farms for Agaricus biporus, and Pleurotus ostreatus, IISE Annual Conference proceedings 2023, New Orleans, LA.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
2. Risal S, Wari E, Alian M, Zhu W, Balan V. Modeling Urban Medium-scale Oyster Mushroom Cultivation using Shipping Container. Proceedings of the IISE Annual Conference & Expo 2023. K. Babski-Reeves, B. Eksioglu, D. Hampton, eds. (In press)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
3. Benhaddou D, Balan V, Merchant F, De La Graza A. Estimating Mushroom Yield and Quality Using Image Processing and Deep Learning. In the 2023 IEEE International Wireless Communications & Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC) proceedings, Marrakech, Morocco, June 19-23, 2023. (In press).
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Progress 06/01/21 to 05/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audence(s) are small scale mushroom producers. Our goal is develop methods of sustainably processing substrates and producing high value mushroomin shipping containers. Changes/Problems:Due to the long lead time in the current supply chain problem, we started identifying containers in the first year. Also, due to inflation the cost of materials and mushroom growth chambers has gone high. Also, there is significant deley in getting the growth chambers on time. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A group of four senior design undergraduate students from mechanical engineering program and two master students from computer engineering technology were mentored about developing environmental growth chambers prototype to produce mushrooms. They worked for two semesters to design a data driven growth chamber using different sensors and successfully demonstrated the operation of the prototype. Another group of four undergraduate students from biotechnology program and a Ph.D., student from Environmental Engineering received training to mushroom tissue culturing, producing mycelium, conditioning substrates, and producing mushrooms. A group of three BTEC capstone undergraduate student were trained to grow fungal mycelium to produce leather like material. One BTEC master student has received training on extracting fungal genome, carry out sequencing and annotation. One Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. student assists in the substrate system design and configuration. He also started working on mushroom product application exploration. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We recently published two manuscripts in peer reviewed journals. One of the manuscripts is a review article that provide details about challenges in mushroom cultivation and discuss four major processing steps: (i) producing solid and liquid spawn, (ii) conventional and mechanized processing lignocellulosic biomass substrates to produce mushroom beds, (iii) maintaining growth conditions in climate-controlled rooms, and (iv) energy requirements and managements to produce mushrooms are also provided. This is an excellent resource for mushroom producers. We are developing a website to disseminate to mushroom growing communities. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will complete the web-site with necessary education materials for mushroom producers. This platform will help us to connect with small scale mushroom growers in US. The machines will be installed, and the substrate processing conditions will be optimized to produce mushrooms in a shorter period and with good yield. We plan develop a computer model using Simio simulation software that will capture all the unit operations of mushroom cultivation and energy requirements. We will separately perform techno-economic analysis to calculate the cost of establishing a small scale mushroom cultivation using containers. We will connect with small scale mushroom growers and organize a two-day workshop at UH to demonstrate the substrate processing and mushroom cultivation.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Developing data driven mushroom growth chamber: A senior design team comprising four students used SolidWorks software and designed the mushroom growth chamber prototype. The dimension of the mushroom growth chamber (17 x 20 x 15 inches). The chamber was made using square aluminum tubing and polycarbonate sheets. A master student from computer engineering install sensors such as temperature, humidity, and CO2 in the growth chamber. The sensors were interphase with Raspberry Pi controller and different environmental parameters were controlled using a software. The data was displayed on a small LCD screen. The function of the growth chamber was evaluated by maintaining the environmental condition at 85+2% humidity, 75+2oF, 1000+100 ppm CO2, and LED light for few days. This prototype will be used to train farmers about maintaining the right environmental conditions to produce good quality mushrooms with high yield. Substrate processing system: We first identified all the machineries (steam generator, substrate milling machine, substrate mixer and densification unit) that are needed for substrate processing to produce mushrooms by enquiring different vendors. We also designed a control panel to connect and operate all the machines. We used Solid works software to model all the machines and simulated the operation to monitor the flow in a shipping container. Then we placed the order to custom manufacture these machines and control panel to a vendor. There is some delay in shipping the machine due to supply chain problem. Once the machines arrive, they will be installed in a 40-foot insulated shipping container and will be used to condition the substrate for growing mushrooms in a growth chamber. Mushroom Cultivation: Four undergraduate BTEC student and Ph.D., students were trained to carry out tissue culturing two different fungus (Oyster and milky white) and produce fungal mycelium using grains. The pictures taken during the training were used in prepare a figure in the Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology review article 'Challenges and opportunities in producing high?quality edible mushrooms from lignocellulosic biomass in a small scale'. The students also received training to densify the biomass substrates and in the process of developing protocols to check their sterility. One master student from computer engineering technology developed an Imaging tool for commercial mushroom yield and quality estimation. A computer vision algorithm was developed that specializes in the identification of mushrooms in a growing room where mycelium growth and obstructions are common due to the ever-changing conditions inside a busy mushroom farm. The radii measurements obtained, has been used to count, measure area, and identify trends in the growth process. This new method will help measure mushroom production yields and profit margins by understanding what is happening in their growing rooms in real time.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
1. Balan V, Novak D, Knudson W, Jones AD, Iniguez-Franco FM, Auras R, Cho S, Rodgers A, Ubanwa B. Nutritious mushroom protein crisp healthy alternative to starchy snack. Food Production, Processing and Nutrition 3:33 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43014-021-00077-7.
2. Balan V, Zhu W, Krishnamoorthy H, Benhaddou D, Mowrer J, Husain H, Eskandari A. Challenges, and opportunities in producing high?quality edible mushrooms from lignocellulosic biomass in a small scale. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. 106:13551374 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-021-11749-2.
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