Project description
Making wood as strong as concrete
The rise of urbanisation has resulted in a shortage of construction materials and the use of building materials that are unsustainable. However, steel and concrete cannot be replaced by wood which is not as strong as required. The EU-funded Woodoo project proposes an innovative technology that transforms natural wood into an amplified material that is as strong as concrete and translucent. The technology replaces wood’s lignin with a biopolymer that improves its performance, allowing the construction of wooden buildings and reducing environmental impact. Woodoo will produce small quantities of the product for car suppliers to create auto interiors. The aim is to commercialise for future use by car manufacturers and sawmills for large-level localised production.
Objective
Woodoo transforms natural wood into an augmented material that is strong, light, durable and stunningly translucent. It uses a patented scalable technology to replace wood’s lignin with a bio-polymer that boosts its performance. The result is a material as strong as concrete and luminous as amber. It will be used to create unique auto interiors, lightweight car chassis and sustainable wooden buildings. It will benefit Europe by revitalising the forestry sector. Problem: Global shortage of construction materials (concrete, steel), even as the urbanisation boom exacerbates demand. Current building materials are unsustainable. Wood is too weak to replace steel and concrete. Solution: Woodoo creates augmented wood, a new material that is abundant, sustainable and extremely strong. Woodoo wood can be bent into any shape, used like touchscreens for electronics, and replace concrete to build massive wooden constructions with low environmental footprint. Innovation: Wood is treated to remove lignin, then impregnated with a proprietary polymer. This modifies wood’s structure, increasing strength and durability, while allowing light to penetrate. Commercialization: Woodoo will produce small batches for auto suppliers for interior panels and wooden touchscreens. It will later license technology to carmakers and sawmills to enable large-scale localized production. Demand: Interest from major premium car manufacturers and tier 1 suppliers. Markets: Auto outfitting, construction materials, lignin by-product. All large and growing. TAM of €125B for the automotive interior materials and €313B for wood construction. Company: Founded in 2016. Team of experienced managers and R&D experts. Ready to scale. Project: Woodoo will develop an auto interior part (a dashboard) from augmented wood. The outcome will be a ready-to-launch production process.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energy
- natural scienceschemical sciencespolymer sciences
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesforestry
- engineering and technologycivil engineeringarchitecture engineeringsustainable architecturesustainable building
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinator
75001 Paris
France
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.