Replacing cement in wood wool boards

Wood wool boards are versatile materials for industrial construction of houses, halls, schools, properties and premises. The board's properties include good sound absorption, good heat storage, fire protection and balancing of moisture in indoor air. They can be used in very demanding environments such as swimming pools and outdoors, which is usually a problem for wood-based boards.

The boards are manufactured with mainly three ingredients: wood wool, water and cement. The dilemma with today's product is that cement makes the product heavy, requires a lot of energy in production and, unlike wood wool, cement is a finite raw material.

By fully or partially replacing cement with alternative solutions such as bio-based raw materials, the bio-based content in the product increases and thus reducing the climate footprint as well as the use of finite resources. The climate footprint can also be improved by using cement with a low climate footprint compared to traditional cement. Replacing cement should be done in a way that does not negatively affect the board's areas of use, function, and price.

A successful project will give the market an opportunity to choose acoustic, insulation and facade materials with a large proportion of bio-based content and reduced climate footprint, which have the potential to replace the products with a low proportion of bio-based materials that dominate the Swedish market today.