iwood panel, the first ecological produced wood material made of saw dust and wood flour

At least 200 million cubic meter saw dust and wood flour per year are to be obtained by sawing industrial rough timber. So far these by-products could only be used for process heat. As a raw material for the paper industry or for wood based panels like chipboards the fibers of saw dust and wood flour are missing the needed strength.

The swiss startup company innovation wood (iwood for short) is founded on the idea of developing a marketable, new process for the production of environmentally friendly and affordable panels for the furniture and building industries. Panels and mouldings are produced by firstly forming a dough made of sawdust, wood flour, starch and water. That dough is foamed in the next step either mechanically or by microorganisms (mainly yeast) very much like a bread dough. The wood paste is then dried, resulting in a hard material (like crackers or crispbread) with properties comparable to chipboard and similar products. 

iwood panels as a material weighs half as much as current conventional materials (250 – 300 kg/m³) and can easily be grinded, sawed, planed, drilled, screwed and glued with common tools.