Formaldehyde emission from wood based panels

Concern about possible health effects from formaldehyde emitted from wood based panel products manufactured with formaldehyde based binding resins has led to the development and increasing use of low emission products. To control the emissions a range of tests has been developed which the wood-based panel industry can use to determine the potential of products to release formaldehyde. These research objectives are to measure the emission of formaldehyde from wood based panels, to study the effect of thickness on formaldehyde emission from wood based panels and to study the effect of different resin ratio on formaldehyde emission from wood based panels. As World Health Organization reclassified formaldehyde from “probably carcinogenic to humans” to “carcinogenic to humans”, this research is more motivated. Medium density fibreboard (MDF), one of the most used wood based panels is used in this research. Urea-Formaldehyde (UF) is the type of resin that is studied here. In this research, soxhlet extraction method is used instead of perforator method along with acetylacetone method, photometrically to calculate formaldehyde content. It is expected that formaldehyde emission is decreased with time. Thicker medium density fibreboard will emit more formaldehyde. During board production, high level of resin used cause higher emission of formaldehyde on product board. Data obtain in this research can be used to control formaldehyde emission in Malaysia specifically. This will come out with safer and cleaner environment for us to live in