Environmental performance assessment of the melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF) resin manufacture: a case study in Brazil

Published Date
1 June 2015, Vol.96:299–307, doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.03.007

Integrating Cleaner Production into Sustainability Strategies

Author 

Diogo Aparecido Lopes Silva ^a,,

Francisco Antonio Rocco Lahr ^b

Luciano Donizeti Varanda^c

André Luis Christoforo ^d

Aldo Roberto Ometto ^a

aDepartment of Production Engineering, School of Engineering of São Carlos, University of São Paulo, 400 Trabalhador São-Carlense Avenue, São Carlos 13566-590, Brazil

bDepartment of Structural Engineering, School of Engineering of São Carlos, University of São Paulo, 400 Trabalhador São-Carlense Avenue, São Carlos 13566-590, Brazil

cDepartment of Materials Engineering, The University of São Paulo, 400 Trabalhador Sao-carlense Avenue, Sao Carlos 13566-590, Brazil

dDepartment of Civil Engineering, Federal University of São Carlos, Washington Luis Road, kM 235 – SP 310, Guanabara Garden, São Carlos 13465-905, Brazil

Received 24 August 2013. Revised 26 February 2014. Accepted 1 March 2014. Available online 14 March 2014. 

Highlights

• We analyzed an LCA case study of melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF) resin manufacture.
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  Most non-toxicological impacts occur during raw material supply stage.
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  Most toxicological impacts occur during MUF manufacturing stage.
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  Improvement suggestions were performed based on scenario analysis.
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  We suggested adding up to 10% of melamine to produce MUF resin.

Abstract 

Melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF) resin is commonly used in the production of wood-based panels. It can replace urea-formaldehyde (UF) resin particularly to improve wood panel properties under high humidity conditions. This paper presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) study of the production of MUF resin through a case study conducted in Brazil. The assessment of 1 kg of MUF resin included two main stages: raw material supply and MUF resin manufacturing. A detailed inventory of MUF resin was obtained from technical visits to a Brazilian producer (foreground system), as well as from literature reviews (mainly background systems). The potential environmental impact assessment phase was assessed by applying two methods and seven impact categories: CML (abiotic depletion, acidification, global warming, eutrophication and photochemical oxidation) and USEtox (ecotoxicity and human toxicity). The raw material supply stage was responsible for most of the impacts, except for the toxicological impact categories. Nearly all of the raw material supply hotspots are related to the production of melamine (9–61% of impacts) and urea (3–72% of impacts). The MUF manufacturing stage was significantly more important for ecotoxicity (84% of impacts) and human toxicity (72% of impacts) due to local formaldehyde emissions. Improvement scenarios were developed and the addition of up to 10% of melamine was suggested for the production of MUF resins. MUF resin was compared with UF resin and the results showed that MUF can replace UF resin because of its lower contribution to photochemical oxidation, ecotoxicity and human toxicity.

Keywords

• Amino resins
• Urea-formaldehyde resin
• Wood-based panels
• Particleboards
• Environmental hotspots
• Improvement opportunities

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  Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 16 33738206.
  
  

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