📋 Tender Overview
Start Date: 01/07/2023
End Date: 30/06/2031
Total Eligible Budget: 3,334,120 €
EU Contribution: 2,000,472 €
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Environmentally friendly and nature-based materials in the construction/building sector are now inevitable. The use of wood will skyrocket in the next years. However, a significant share of wood comes from South America, Africa, and Asia. EU imports the equivalent of 84 football fields of exotic wood daily, contributing to deforestation and its adverse consequence (GHG emissions, biodiversity loss). Indeed, the resistance qualities of exotic woods are far superior to those of EU woods. They are used for decking, cladding and window profiles - a market of several million m3 of wood per year that is currently inaccessible to EU woods which are poorly resistant and are sold at low prices for carpentry or as firewood. LIFE-WOODTECH will offer a ground-breaking solution to improve the performance of EU forests. The project aims to develop a new technology combining well-known processes acetylation & supercritical CO2. The project was born in CEA’s labs. Researchers have developed a molecular modification process making acetylated fir and spruce woods samples as resistant as the best exotic woods, with a much better environmental & economic balance. The patented technology combines several reactive chemistry processes to transform the molecular structure of the wood. It becomes rot-proof, stable and durable, surpassing the best exotic woods. EU forestry sector will capture a high added value commercial outlet for its products, stimulating the industrialization of the sector, and restoring Europe's sovereignty in the wood trade.
