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This article looks at Indowud NFC, a Chennai-based company pioneering sustainable alternatives to wood by transforming rice husk, a common agricultural by-product,into durable, recyclable furniture panels. Founded by B. L. Bengani, the company developed a Natural Fibre Composite (NFC) that eliminates the need for tree-felling while offering a waterproof, termite-proof, flame retardant and thermoformable material.
Across the world, the search for alternatives to conventional wood has become an urgent design and environmental pursuit. As industries grapple with the twin crises of deforestation and waste management, materials once dismissed as agricultural residue are being reimagined as valuable resources. Rice husk, sugarcane bagasse, coconut coir, and other by-products of farming hold immense potential as raw materials that can replace timber and plastic in everyday use. These innovations represent a new material logic: one that transforms what was once burned or discarded into sustainable, high-performance products.
Among the pioneers of this shift is Indowud NFC, a Chennai-based company turning rice husk — the tough, silicate-rich shell left after milling rice — into durable, eco-conscious furniture panels. Founded by B. L. Bengani, who earlier built and exited Uniply, Indowud has developed a Natural Fibre Composite (NFC) that challenges our dependence on wood altogether. After two years of research, the company launched its product commercially in 2019, setting out to prove that India’s most abundant agricultural waste could become the foundation for the next generation of sustainable design.
Indowud collects rice husk that is often burned, contributing to seasonal air pollution nearby husk, dries and pulverises it into a fine powder, and blends it with mineral additives and polymer resins. That engineered mix is formed into sheets using extrusion and thermoforming techniques; the result is a homogeneous, wood-like board that requires no tree-felling.
Indowud NFC boards are marketed as waterproof, termite-proof, flame retardant and recyclable — characteristics that make them suitable for kitchens, bathrooms, exterior joinery and outdoor furniture. The company emphasises high density and structural reliability, so carpenters can work them with conventional tools while enjoying greater design freedom because the panels can be bent and thermoformed.
There is an explicit environmental arithmetic behind the narrative: Indowud’s plant near Chennai has a stated capacity of around 5,000 tonnes per year. The company and multiple press profiles estimate that this scale translates into thousands of trees spared — commonly quoted as roughly 20,000 trees for every full-capacity run — while also offering farmers a market for husk that would otherwise be waste. That combination addresses two persistent Indian problems at once: stubble burning and deforestation.
Commercially, Indowud has moved beyond local proof-of-concept. The firm reports supplies to markets such as Australia, New Zealand and Oman, and is exploring further exports — a sign that engineered, circular materials can scale in markets that care about performance. For designers and founders the lesson is direct: industrial waste from one sector can be reimagined as the feedstock for another — economically viable, technically robust and, crucially, better for the climate.
Indowud’s story is an industrial design experiment that insists sustainability need not be costly or compromising. If the company continues to refine its chemistry and broaden distribution, rice-husks-to-furniture may shift from novelty to mainstream — and, in doing so, spare forests on the long run.
Follow Indowud here.
