Kombucha applications at IDC

Teammembers: Emile Deprez (UGent) & Amber Hochepied (UGent) & Wout Musshe (UGent)

Coaches: Jasper (GLIMPS) + UGent (Francesca)

The challenge

Annually over 350,000,000 cow hides are used for leather production leading to a big environmental impact, which requires the development of sustainable alternatives. The use of bacteria and yeast to grow a sustainable alternative could be one of the options to replace animal-based leather, thereby merging the fields of material design and biology. Unfortunately, the application of such leather like materials still remains difficult to scale, as the technical performance of the materials still remains unsure. The goal of working with bacterial leather is to prototype with the material in the design atelier and find ways to optimise the material for further application in the design process.

How can we introduce this knowledge in our IO curriculum?
How should the prototyping and use of kombucha leather be organised in a design atelier?
How can we engage different stakeholders and actors in this mission? How can we make this a self-sustainable system?
...

The results

a. Overview

Instructions on website
Instruction video
Experimenting and prototyping with samples
DIY-kit for Kombucha
Documenting the process (weekly highlights)
Stakeholder mapping (miro board)
Small LCA
Sample for sample board in IDC

b. DIY-kits

Deze Kit is af te halen in het IDC. Ook wij zullen op dat moment aanwezig zijn om vragen te beantwoorden. Het is mogelijk de kit naar huis mee te nemen, of in het IDC je batch in gang te steken!

Maak gebruik van dit moment om zelf eens je eigen leer te maken. Het proces is even leuk als het eindresultaat! Zelf als je er uiteindelijk niets mee zal doen, is het iets om zeker op je bucketlist te plaatsen. De ervaring om je eigen materiaal te maken is onvervangbaar!

Het stappenplan en het filmpje vind je hier.

Weekly highlights2 (7)

Weekly highlights2 (5)

Weekly highlights2 (7)

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d. Learning by prototyping

Screenshot 2021-06-28 at 14.42.20

Screenshot 2021-06-28 at 14.42.33

Weekly highlights2 (4)

Screenshot 2021-06-28 at 14.42.20

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Process

Last Wednesday, our group met for the first time to kick off the cybernetics course. We were assigned the kombucha project, which entails the exploration of different usages of kombucha and the design of a system to implement the use of kombucha for regular prototyping for IO and IPO students.

#team2 #kombucha #kickoff

To discover the properties of the kombucha, we experimented on small pieces and observed how these react to several conditions. We tried to heat it up which makes it soft at first but gives it a spongey appearance when heated further. The slabs can be flattened when heated and pressed. The kombucha deteriorates when it comes in touch with water. When pure alcohol is applied to the surface of the kombucha, the top layer gets bleached, but this effect disappears after a while.

#kombucha #biomaterials #experimenting

Today we met up with Hermien, a fellow student who has a lot of experience working with kombucha. She was able to answer some of our questions and gave us some advice

#learning #networking

This week, we had an online meeting with Jasper Bloemen from Glimps. Jasper has experience working with kombucha and was eager to teach us the ins and outs of growing kombucha leather. Unfortunately, Jasper could not make it that week, but we have an appointment next Wednesday.

#kombucha #online

This week we learned about systems thinking so we tried to apply this theory to our project. We made the first version of a loop diagram of what we imagine our system looks like.

#systemsthinking #learing

We started with developing the visual representation of our system using feedback loops. Our representation isn’t based on archetypes. It shows the influence of our system (website, poster, DIY-kit) on the use of kombucha.

#feedbackloops #cybernetics

On Wednesday, we attended a lecture on biomaterials in which, among other things, the LCA or life cycle analysis was explained. After the lecture, we laid the first hand on the creation of the LCA for kombucha.

#LCA #biomaterials

We had a conversation with Yannick about the integration of the use of kombucha in the IO course. He seemed quite interested in the topic and said he would be willing to give a lecture to the first years to make them aware of biomaterials

#IO #systemsthinking

This week, we decided to make new batches of kombucha to test some parameters which can influence the growth of the scoby. One of these is the use of wastewater resulting from the growth of mycelium as a replacement for tap water to make tea.

#experimenting #kombucha

Last Wednesday, we started cooking some tea according to Jasper’s instructions. The tea is a suitable environment for the scoby (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) to grow in. It must boil first so that it will be sterile but needs to cool down until below 30 °C or the scoby would die.

#kombucha #tea #experimenting

Last Wednesday, we started with handing out DIY-kits at the IDC. We were quite surprised with the amount of interest that was shown. We handed out 4 free kits and 3 for which the students paid 2 euros.

#DIY #kombucha

The LCA was finalized during the Easter break. The materials that make up kombucha leather weren’t available in CES edupack so we searched and found papers that list the LCA’s of these materials. We compared them to leather and found that leather will only be more sustainable after 40 years of continuous use.

#LCA #sustainability