Lunawood invited companies and teams to develop new ways to utilise fine dust generated as a sidestream of thermowood production. Currently, the sawdust is used for energy, but Lunawood is seeking higher-value applications—solutions that support circular economy and reduce the carbon footprint. The goal was to find feasible ideas that can be quickly piloted and scaled for commercial use.
In September 2025 The BioBoosters business accelerator opened an innovation call to meet Lunawood’s needs. Based on the challenge, five teams were invited to a joint workshop at Lunawood’s factory in Iisalmi on 29 October 2025. At the workshop day, the teams presented their solutions and assessed their feasibility reflected to Lunawood’s selection criteria. The discussions revealed several promising paths—some solutions are ready for rapid piloting, while others require further development.
The ideas presented by the teams were diverse and demonstrated the potential of thermowood dust. Xylo Gas and SFTec focused on opportunities for biochar production as part of energy utilisation. Biochar has multiple markets, for example in growing media, water purification, and industrial processes. In addition, Epira Oy explored the use of thermowood dust as part of animal bedding, while Klapi Shoppi Oy proposed its use in composting material.
Finnmycel Oy received special recognition for innovation by exploring how thermowood dust can be used to grow fungal mycelium for producing various high-value products. The team, which had already started preliminary cultivation trials during the challenge, impressed with their strong circular economy expertise and market potential. “Innovation competitions are extremely important opportunities for startups,” says Jouko Salonen from Finnmycel, who was selected for further discussions and will continue the initiated cultivation experiments.
Lunawood will continue discussions with several teams based on the workshop. “The innovation call confirmed that thermowood dust has many possibilities in the circular economy. We are pleased to have engaged teams with concrete and scalable ideas,” says Pauliina Tynkkynen, Lunawood’s Sustainability Manager.
