Woodoo Augmented Wood - transforming wood into construction material strong as concrete and translucent as amber

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.

Field of science

• /engineering and technology/materials engineering/paper and wood
• /social sciences/economics and business/economics/sustainable economy

Programme(s)

• H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
• H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
• H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies

Topic(s)

• EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020 - SME instrument

Call for proposal

H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-2
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Coordinator