this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2025
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Environment

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Environment:

The totality of the natural world, often excluding humans.

A subset of the natural world; an ecosystem.

The combination of external physical conditions that affect and influence the growth, development, behavior, and survival of organisms.

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Exclusive: InventWood is about to mass-produce wood that’s stronger than steel (techcrunch.com)
submitted 9 months ago by cm0002@lemmy.world to c/environment@sh.itjust.works
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InventWood's Superwood represents a breakthrough material that transforms ordinary wood into a substance stronger than steel through molecular restructuring and densification[^1]. The company is launching a 90,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Frederick, Maryland in Q3 2025 to begin commercial production[^7].

Key features of Superwood:

  • 50% more tensile strength than steel with 10x better strength-to-weight ratio[^9]
  • Fire-resistant, rot-resistant, and pest-resistant while maintaining wood's natural appearance[^7]
  • Created through a two-step process involving chemical treatment and hot-pressing[^8]
  • Can be produced in hours rather than weeks using "food industry" chemicals[^9]

Environmental Impact:

  • Could replace up to 80% of global steel and concrete use[^5]
  • Potential to reduce carbon emissions by 37.2 gigatons over 30 years[^5]
  • Trees act as carbon stores: steel produces 1.85 kg CO2 per kilogram, while wood removes 1.8 kg CO2[^5]

Business Development:

  • Secured $15 million in Series A funding in 2025[^7]
  • Total capital raised exceeds $50 million[^7]
  • Formed partnership with Intectural for North American distribution[^7]
  • Initial products will focus on building facades before expanding to structural applications[^9]

[^1]: InventWood — Technology [^5]: InventWood aims to 'replace steel and concrete' [^7]: InventWood Announces $15 Million First Close of Series A [^8]: New Atlas - 'Superwood' that's 50% stronger than steel is coming this year [^9]: TechCrunch - InventWood is about to mass-produce wood that's stronger than steel

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[–] PuddleOfKittens@sh.itjust.works 0 points 9 months ago

Definitely more, in the short term. If only because steel mills operate at phenomenal scale, and are decades old and thus have long since paid off their mortgages.

The pressing process of the wood takes a couple of hours, and while it's really impressive that they got it down from a week, that means they'll need a lot of presses to scale the whole thing up. Which means $$$, and realistically means they ought to throw a lot more $$$ at reducing the pressing time needed before they can undercut steel.

There's definitely potential though - steel takes a fuckton of energy (1500 degrees IIRC) whereas this wood only requires 100ish degrees and some constant pressure. And energy is money, and chopping down your major input 15x is amazing. If they can solve the manufacturing speed problem, then they're undercutting steel even if they don't win on material properties.