Study on the Kinetics and Pyrolysis Behavior of Waste Containing Urea-Formaldehyde Resins

Abstract

In this work, we studied the kinetics and behavior of wood panel wastes containing ureaformaldehyde resins. For this purpose, we used a TG-FTIR coupled system to analyze the gaseous products of the pyrolysis. With the results, we obtained the models that provide theoretical evidence and data support for the studied reactions. According to our findings, the pyrolysis of the ureaformaldehyde components displayed two stages, and the second stage presented a higher intensity. At a temperature of 900 °C, the gas generation rate for hard UF (UF1) was 32.6% higher than that for soft UF (UF2). When temperature increased from 600 °C to 900 °C, the increase of the gas generation rate was relatively small. In addition, the reaction order was obtained using the CoatsRedfern method, which provided a value for the reaction order of 1.4. The activation energy of UF1 was slightly higher than that of UF2. The FTIR analysis indicated that the main gaseous products of the pyrolysis of the urea-formaldehyde resin samples were CO2, H2O, and other compounds containing the C–H and the N–H bond as well as carbonyl groups. In addition, it was determined that Nitrogen was mainly present in the form of hydronitrogen compounds but not as nitrogen oxides. These last may represent a higher degree of pollution.