New indust. crop yielding a biomaterial that will reduce dependence on foriegn oil and increase the econ. sustainability of farms in America

Foreign petroleum constitutes more than 60% of the oil used in the United States, and although significant strides are being taken to ensure future independence for fuel needs, the 10% of petroleum imports that are used as feedstock to produce materials are typically ignored. High density petrol-foams such as Divinycell or H1, are commonly used in products from vehicle panels to wind turbine blades--all of which bore witness to a 50% price increase due to rising oil prices in mid-2008. Ecovative's patent-pending, biomaterial is literally grown to the near net shape of the final product from a substrate of industrial and agricultural byproducts. This novel biomaterial, MycoPly, has superior strength and elasticity to the aforementioned petrol-foams while exhibiting a comparable density. The product is grown using less than a fifth of the embodied energy that is required to fabricate an equivalent quantity of the high density foams, thus allowing the composite to potentially retail for less than current petrol- foams. Furthermore the composite is aerobically compostable after product use and carbon neutral in the manufacturing process, which reduces the environmental footprint that exists with petrol-foam products. MycoPly is grown from a fungal saprophyte that derives the energy required to grow the biomaterial from a lignocellulosic source. This source can have economic synergies with existing biofuel crops, using the fuel byproducts as the nutrient source and thereby driving further economic incentives for biofuel production. Agricultural byproducts from existing industrial crops (e.g. cottonseed hulls and distillers dried grains) can be implemented as the lignocellulosic feedstock, creating a higher value-added product while requiring minimal additional water and time inputs.