Technological performance of formaldehyde-free adhesive alternatives for particleboard industry

Due to their high reactivity, chemical versatility and economic competitiveness, formaldehyde-based poly-condensation adhesives are used in huge amounts - in 2010 in the order of 20 million metric tons - around the globe, primarily in the wood-processing industry. Since the 1970s formaldehyde emissions from products made thereof came under pressure and were reduced continuously. The discussion intensified again initiated by the latest European CLP (classification, labelling and packaging) regulation, which came into force in 2016, classifying formaldehyde as a Carcinogen Category 1B compound. In view of potential and even stronger future restrictions of formaldehyde use, appropriate alternatives to substitute formaldehyde-based adhesive systems such as urea formaldehyde would have to be developed and implemented in the wood processing industry. The present review represents a critical appraisal of formaldehyde-free adhesive systems for particulate wood composites production proposed in literature so far. Adhesive systems analyzed here include both synthetic and renewable-based adhesives. The core of the review is an assessment of the individual adhesive systems based on selected technological (product and process) parameters relevant for wood-particleboard production. Based on this data we evaluated their potential to identify suitable alternative adhesives having a certain probability to meet the requirements of a large-scale processing industry sector. As an overall conclusion, there are still many challenges to overcome to replace formaldehyde. Except for pMDI-based systems, most of the alternative adhesives are considerably less reactive, which would result in dramatically higher production costs. Furthermore, the availability of most components proposed to produce alternative adhesives are currently not available in the necessary quantities. Moreover, toxicological investigations on alternative systems are still missing. As several components replacing formaldehyde are also toxic or hazardous to different extents, it cannot be guaranteed that the individual proposed alternative adhesives are safer during processing and service life compared to conventional systems. Due to the nature of the organic material wood, particleboards will always release a certain amount of formaldehyde, even when produced with formaldehyde-free adhesives.