Nominations for the 2021 3D Printing Industry Awards are now open, have your say who is leading the industry now.
An alternative wood substitute made from kombucha tea waste has been awarded this year’s national James Dyson Award, and is reportedly looking to leverage 3D printing to scale up production.
Pyrus, a wood-mimicking material made from bacteria cellulose grown on the top of kombucha tea as it brews, was developed by University of Illinois student Gabe Tavas to address the impacts of deforestation.
The James Dyson Award will inject $2,600 into the project, which Tavas hopes to use to expand his production and develop 3D printing capabilities to print Pyrus into larger objects.
Developing Pyrus
Pyrus is a petroleum-free wood-like material that is sustainably produced with repurposed bacterial cellulose waste from kombucha tea. The idea of the project is to replace exotic woods that are disappearing from rainforests such as the Amazon for production, and came about after Tavas became more attuned to such environmental issues after living in an indigenous community in Ecuador.
Wood typically has two essential ingredients. Cellulose provides its basic shape and framework while lignin acts as a glue to hold together the other components. These are the most common organic molecules on earth, and the bacteria used by some companies to produce acidic drinks like kombucha produces sheets of cellulose on top of the liquid they are within.
To make Pyrus, Tavas started growing a supply of bacterial cellulose using cultures he bought online, water, and apple slices in his dorm room. Over the course of a few weeks, the bacteria fed off the apples to create cellulose sheets at the surface. These sheets could then be extracted and blended to an even consistency before being embedded in an algae-based gel.
The gel hardens significantly as it dries, and is then placed under a mechanical press to form a flat sheet of wood. Having been supplied with 250 pounds of cellulose from Kombuchade, and partnering with a community of food businesses called The Plant to provide food waste, Tavas has produced 74 Pyrus wood samples over the past year in a variety of colors and textures.
Maintaining the versatility of real wood, Pyrus can be laser cut, CNC machines, and sanded to a smooth finish to create small products such as guitar picks, coasters and jewelry. Tavas and his team also pride themselves upon disregarding the use of petroleum, toxins, or other non-biodegradable additives during the production process.
The future for Pyrus
Tavas’ top priority is to produce a variety of environmentally-friendly products from Pyrus that meet consumer needs and are commercially viable. His team are currently using laser cutters at local design studios to make jewelry and coasters that are then sold through The Plant’s retail store, in order to achieve circularity within its production cycle.
Eventually, Tavas hopes to turn customer interest into revenue streams that will sustain a formal company, called Symmetry, and fund improvements to Pyrus that will enable it to be leveraged for larger-scale objects such as furniture and even buildings.
The cash injection from the James Dyson Award will also feed into this vision, and help Tavas to scale up the production of Pyrus. His goal is to develop 3D printing capabilities that will make producing larger items possible.
Dyson Award winners in 3D printing
The James Dyson Award is an international design award that seeks to “celebrate, encourage and inspire” the next generation of design engineers. The Award is open to students and recent design and engineering graduates who can win prize money and generate media exposure to kick-start their projects and careers.
Several 3D printing-based projects have been recognized with a James Dyson Award in the past for a range of applications. Back in 2013, a 3D printed inexpensive upper-body exoskeleton called Titan Arm won the accolade, developed by four mechanical engineering students from the University of Pennsylvania.
Additive manufacturing was recognized the following year, too, with two 3D printing-related projects receiving awards. The Italian award went to a mosaic printer, the Ladybug, while the Canadian award went to the PrintAlive Bioprinter, a 3D printer that aimed to print new skin for burn victims far quicker than existing methods at the time.
More recently in 2020, New Zealand design engineer Rik Olthius won the national James Dyson Award for a pair of 3D printed biodegradable trainers that, due to not containing adhesives, can compost faster when thrown away.
Nominations for the 2021 3D Printing Industry Awards are now open, have your say who is leading the industry now.
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Featured image shows a collection of jewelry, functional guitar picks, and a coaster made from Pyrus wood. Photo via James Dyson Award.