Bacterial Cellulose - MAKING VIDEO
The symbiotic community of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) of Kombucha beverage produces a floating film composed of bacterial cellulose, a distinctive biobased material.
Sweetened black or green tea undergoes fermentation with the help of the SCOBY, forming a layer of bacterial cellulose on the air-liquid interface. Kombucha drink is considered a healthy and therapeutic agent. However, the newly grown fungus membrane usually is thrown as waste.
While the sugar and tea feed the bacteria, the vinegar promotes the fermentation process.
Bacterial cellulose is an emerging sustainable biopolymer with immense potential in the biomedical field due to its unique physical properties such as flexibility, high porosity, good water holding capacity and biological characteristics such as biodegradibility, biocompatibility, non-toxicity. Therefore it could be used as a medical wearable or replace the toxic materials in soft robotics.
Bacterial cellulose is also attracting industrial interest from the textile sector due to advanced properties of bacterial cellulose compared to plant cellulose. For instance, bacterial cellulose is produced by microorganisms in a sustainable way, is biodegradable and does not pollute the environment. Bacterial cellulose can be dyed*, resulting in an attractive textile surface that meets the actual socio-environmental awareness of the industry.
Bacterial cellulose can be introduced with pattern as well - I have tried to laser engrave the material and it worked very well!
Laser engraved bacterial cellulose.
On the CNC machine I just set similar settings as I would for engraving thin leather. And it worked very well!
Therefore, kombucha leather can be inprinted with pattern and be even more acceptable to the fashion market.
