MANILA, Philippines — A startup wood laminate manufacturer is harnessing a huge coconut husk wastage to produce a durable, high-end, and first-of-its-kind composites that can displace imports.

A company being jumpstarted by the Enterprise Center for Technopreneurship (ECT), Pocowood Inc. is tapping the use of coconut coir from husks combined with high density polyethylene (HDP) to produce composites (engineered materials made up of individual constituents) with compressive strength comparable to imports.

It can perhaps be the first commercial, from-the-bottom Filipino-engineered fiber-reinforced wood laminates.

“The technology itself is not new, but formulation using coconut fiber, that’s new. Who would imagine a (humble) coconut material would come up with a very strong structural and even decorative material?” said Rulf Ruffel M. Abarca, Pocowood in an interview at an ECT launch.

Pocowood has yet to put up an P8 million manufacturing plant eyed to be located in Pasig City. Its sample wood laminates, though, have already attracted construction companies which are its major market.

While intending to import from China machinery for the composites’ manufacturing, the ECT-Technology Business Incubator (TBI) plans to syndicate a financing-machinery production package for Pocowood.

“We can produce the machines here (through the ERDT program),”said Dr. Luis G. Sison, ETC head and University of the Philippines-Diliman (UPD) vice chancellor for research and development.

The ETC links with the national government-funded Engineering Research and Development for Technology (ERDT) which has a P3 billion budget to develop key manufacturing Filipino technologies. ETC is seeking capitalists that can fund an initial P8 million for Pocowood in coordination with the UPD Technology Licensing Office.

Pocowood’s composites are made up of HDP, a petroleum-based thermoplastic that has high tensile strength and capacity to withstand high temperature; dried trash papers like newspapers and cartons; and the coconut coir fiber.

A wood material that competes with expensive hardwood and laminates such as Germany-made Kronotex, Pocowood laminates are priced cheaper than imported hardwood on a per board foot basis at P115.

They are water resistant – good for outdoor applications; do not rot (no chemical needed to protect them from termites); and lasts significantly longer than ordinary wood.

“We offer a 25-year warranty, but it can last longer than that for outdoors. For indoors, its life is much longer,” said Abarca, also an ERDT Master of Science in Chemical Engineering scholar and engineering faculty of the Mindanao State University.

The wood laminate venture has already attracted initial angel investors’ interest, according to Abarca.

The venture is estimated to have an internal rate of return of 23 percent and will generate P9.23-million revenue on the first year rising to P21.9 million on the fifth year. Payback period is 2.87 years.

“We are open for partnerships that may be offered by the government, private companies or individual investors to generate funding,” said a PoCowood investment primer.

Under Pocowood’s technology, wood laminates out of natural wood are “laminated” with polymer to acquire durability and protection from wetness and obtain other advantages such as ability to brush off dirt or preventing scratches. These have wide applications not only as flooring material, wall paneling, benches, tables, chairs, boardwalks but as building structural materials.

The company beams with an immense growth potential arising owing to the country’s foreseen sustained economic growth and the fast-expanding middle-class market segment. The wood supply shortage should also open opportunities for Pocowood.

“We have a big advantage because the government declared a logging ban which encourages the use of coconut coir or fiber,” Abarca said.

The company sees ample supply of coconut fiber from husks from Mindanao (Zamboanga), Rizal and Quezon provinces. It can tap a huge waste resource as it was estimated as of 2008 that Bicol alone produces 1.88 billion coconut husks yearly which are just burned or thrown away while 800 million husks are used as fuel for copra.

This way, the venture offers a sustainable alternative to wood production through the use of wood byproducts – coconut husks in particular.