Durability Analysis of Formaldehyde/Solid Urban Waste Blends

Abstract

Following the innovative research activity carried out in the framework of the POIROT (Italian acronym of dOmotic Platform for Inertization and tRaceability of Organic wasTe) Project, this work aims to optimize the composition of the blends between the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and formaldehyde-based resins, in order to improve the durability properties. To this aim, in this work, commercial urea-formaldehyde and melamine-formaldehyde powder polymers have been proposed for the inertization of the OFMSW, according to the previous optimized OFMSW-transformation process. A preliminary study about the mechanical properties of the composite panels produced with the different resins was carried out by evaluating compressive, flexural, and tensile performances of the panels. Artificial weathering by cyclic (heating–cooling) and boiling tests were carried out and the mechanical properties were evaluated in order to assess the resistance of the panels to water and humidity. The melamine-formaldehyde based resin had the best performances also when subjected to the weathering tests and despite the higher content of resin in the composites, the panels produced with melamine-formaldehyde have the lowest values of release of formaldehyde minimizing their potential hazard level.