What is Formaldehyde?

Formaldehyde is something you are using right now. In the office, your car or at home, the urethane foam in your seat uses chemicals that are built from formaldehyde. Without formaldehyde, many of the things that we take for granted would not exist. Engineered woods used in our homes and furniture are bonded with resins based on this versatile product. In our cars, urethanes and engineering plastics are used for essential components that contain formaldehyde as a key building block. Even the synthetic fibres in our sport clothing use formaldehyde in their production.

Formaldehyde continues to be the largest single end use for methanol. Changes in the market mix of wood panel products, coupled with high growth in plastics and fibres derivatives, are providing new growth potential for formaldehyde beyond the traditional demand stemming from the construction industry.

Wood Products Adhesives
Phenol formaldehyde resins (PF) for plywood and oriented strandboard (OSB), and urea formaldehyde resins (UF) for particleboard and medium density fiberboard (MDF) are the largest markets for formaldehyde.

The declining availability of old-growth timber has accelerated the switch to engineered wood products such as particleboard, OSB and MDF. Engineered wood products can use lower quality woods and wood wastes as feedstocks, providing unique advantages over solid timber products.

The non-structural panels industry has addressed the health concerns related to formaldehyde emissions by using re-engineered UF resins that have reduced emissions to one-tenth the level typical of older resins. The industry continues to grow and has had particular strength due to the popularity of "ready to assemble" (RTA) furniture and cabinetry markets. Particleboard overlaid with wood veneer or plastic laminates has been a mainstay for these applications.

MDF is the fastest growing segment of the wood panel adhesives market. MDF is beginning to replace traditional particleboard in many applications. The unique properties of MDF - its small particle size and uniform density - allow it to be machined or pressed into complex shapes. MDF applications include construction moulding trim (baseboards, copings) architectural shapes (pillars, columns), and interior automotive trim parts (interior door panels and head liners).

The urea formaldehyde adhesives used to bind the wood fibres in particleboard and MDF use a high proportion of formaldehyde in comparison to other resins. Industry forecasts suggest that MDF output will continue to grow.

Plywood has been the traditional structural panel, but the declining availability of high-quality veneer timber is accelerating its replacement with cost advantageous products such as OSB. OSB uses lower quality and faster growing woods which are "waferized" into small chips, combined with a phenol-formaldehyde adhesive and pressed into finished panels. OSB uses approximately twice the amount of phenol-formaldehyde adhesive per board relative to plywood. OSB is forecast to continue increasing its share of the structural panel market.

Polymerics and Chemicals
There are a wide range of other formaldehyde specialty products and applications such as:

1,4-Butanediol is used in the production of tetrahydrofuran, a solvent used in the manufacture of "Spandex" fibres. This market has expanded rapidly with the increased sale of specialty sport and leisure clothing.

Acetyl thermoplastics are made using formaldehyde resins and offer high impact and durability. They continue to find increased use in automotive and plumbing applications including moulded parts, gears and pump housings.

Formaldehyde is also used in the manufacture of methylene di-para-phenylene diisocyanate (MDI) which is used to produce rigid urethane foams and elastomers. High impact resistance and the ability to recover its original shape makes this the ideal material for construction of bumpers and body panels.