As the world grapples with climate change and environmental sustainability, moisture resilience in construction materials, especially in wood, is a critical concern. Traditional wooden structures face significant challenges in high-humidity environments due to the risk of moisture accumulation, which can lead to biodegradation. VacuumWood.tech offers a groundbreaking solution by integrating vacuum drying technology into wooden construction modules, positioning itself as a leader in the green building domain. VacuumWood.tech is at the forefront of tackling one of the most pressing challenges in sustainable construction: how to build resilient, insulated structures for moist environments. In both indoor and outdoor settings, excessive moisture threatens the durability and integrity of traditional building materials, particularly wood. The company has pioneered an innovative solution through the use of vacuum drying technology, offering a maintenance service for construction modules that revolutionizes wood construction by preventing moisture degradation. This cutting-edge technology, combined with remote monitoring through IoT moisture content sensors, ensures that wooden modules remain dry, extending their lifespan and ensuring structural integrity in even the harshest climatic conditions. “Our solution simply exploits the unique combination of material properties of plywood: high strength and low thermal conductivity,” explains Pasi Herranen, CEO, VaccumWood.tech.
The core challenge that VacuumWood.tech addresses is moisture buildup, which is a critical factor in wood biodegradation. Traditional wooden structures, when exposed to excessive moisture, experience a rise in water content that leads to biodegradation once it crosses the 20% moisture threshold. However, VacuumWood.tech’s solution ensures that the moisture is systematically removed from its wooden modules before reaching this critical point. The company’s vacuum drying system, combined with a moisture-resistant, vapor-impermeable coating, allows the modules to stay intact for decades, ensuring that moisture damage is a thing of the past.
One of the most remarkable aspects of VacuumWood.tech’s innovation is its ability to provide real-time, remote surveillance of the modules’ dryness and wellbeing. The IoT sensors embedded in the wooden frames enable property owners to monitor the structural health of their buildings continuously. Should the moisture content rise, the vacuum drying process is initiated, drying the modules and maintaining their strength. This advanced system gives peace of mind to homeowners, property developers, and insurers, as it mitigates the risks of unnoticed water damage and eliminates the need for invasive repairs that are typical in modern buildings after water-related incidents. This approach not only addresses the issue of moisture but also has a profound impact on energy efficiency and material sustainability. By utilizing vacuum drying technology in wooden modules, VacuumWood.tech has made it possible to encapsulate wood in airtight, water-tight structures that maintain their strength, despite environmental conditions. The process of vacuum drying reinforces the wood’s durability and maintain the wooden structures to be dryer than the general equilibrium moisture content of wood, which leads to stronger structures compared to the regular wood construction.
VacuumWood.tech’s wooden modules are also designed to be carbon-negative. This is an important factor in the company’s efforts to contribute to green construction initiatives. By using hollow plywood frames that store more biogenic carbon than is emitted during the production and transportation of materials, the company creates a net-positive environmental impact. The wooden frames are not only strong and lightweight but also offer low thermal conductivity, making them highly energy-efficient. This contributes to the construction industry’s goals of reducing its carbon footprint, and VacuumWood.tech’s modules set a new standard for sustainable building practices.
In addition to addressing moisture and sustainability challenges, VacuumWood.tech is improving the quality of life for inhabitants of the buildings constructed with its modules. Moreover, VacuumWood.tech’s construction solutions are also adaptable and versatile. The company is now focusing on developing dynamic insulation technology, which allows the pressure inside the modules to be altered to optimize thermal insulation properties.
With a target lifespan of over 100 years for its modules, VacuumWood.tech is setting new benchmarks in the construction industry. The combination of moisture resilience, fire protection, UV resistance, and insect-proof coatings ensures that its wooden modules can withstand the test of time. This longevity contributes to the carbon-negative nature of the modules, as more carbon is stored in the wood over its extended lifecycle. Although still in its early stages of commercialization, VacuumWood.tech is making significant strides in the construction industry. With patents secured, including its first in the United States, the company is poised for growth. It is actively seeking partnerships with major construction companies to scale its solution globally, and the U.S. market is seen as a key target for expansion. “In the future we are aiming to bring this technology also for office and residential buildings, but at the moment we concentrate on the warehouse-like buildings so we can optimize the production method simply by producing similar kinds of modules in volumes,” concludes Herranen.
