SCOBY

Scoby is traditionally the by-product of kombucha production. This is a fermented sweetened tea. Scoby (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) converts sugar into acids, forming a gel-like layer that floats on top of the liquid. The material of this gel is cellulose of high purity, bacteria and a lot of water. Based on the properties of this material, people are looking for applications in a wide variety of fields. Producing scoby with tea where the tea is not used as a beverage is not sustainable. - Can tea (the N-source) and sugar (the C-source) be replaced by waste streams and still produce a quality scoby? - What raw materials can be added to scoby to provide new innovative composite materials? - Can vegan leather be made from this scoby? - What other applications is scoby suitable for? Working with scoby is fairly unique in Belgium. Small tests already showed that there is potential in scoby production according to the principles of the bio-circular economy with Belgian waste streams. Yet there is still much new to discover about scoby (or bacterial cellulose). In particular, the composites produced with scoby could be an influx of innovative materials on the market. Moreover, scoby's production processes are not complex. After being fine-tuned by a scientific team, they can be taught to outsiders. This creates employment opportunities in tailor-made companies, among others. Research design: First, based on the classic kombucha recipe, the amount of tea and sugar will be played with. Hereby, scoby production will be monitored for 4 weeks. At the same time, sugar analysis and N analysis on starting and final solution will also be carried out. Thereafter, alternative sources of tea and sugar can be tested. Analysis will be done in the same way. The production of uniform sheets of scoby is difficult to repeat. This is peculiar to the fact that scoby is the product of living cells. To obtain more uniformity, the scoby produced can be mixed, blended with additives and dried into something that can be called ‘vegan leather’. The additives add new and improved properties to the leather. Flexibility, sturdiness and water repellency are some important properties in this regard, which will be further mapped out. Intended research output: - Development of standardised and optimised scoby production processes - Development of a vegan leather, from which a workpiece can be made such as a simple wallet. - Matchmaking between scoby composite and concrete applications. Intended dissemination and possible valorisation activities: Through embedding in project subjects of the PB-BLC course, students will be warmed up around bio-circular research topics. Internship students will also collaborate and write a thesis on the topic. Outside the college, collaborations can be initiated with auctions and supermarkets where large amounts of fruit waste are left behind. These can serve as starting materials and sugar sources. Collaborations with other colleges can also provide broad horizons of applications. Just think of use of the composite material in the arts, interior architecture, product development, ...