Introduction
Although formaldehyde is a gas it in its purest form, it isseldom processed in that state. One exception is the vapor phase reactionprocess of formaldehyde with cellulose-containing textiles. Formaldehyde isusually handled as an aqueous solution, as paraformaldehyde (a homopolymer offormaldehyde) or as a reaction product in a resin. Aqueous formaldehyde is mostfrequently 37% active and contains 0.05% to 15% methanol, to preventpolymerization to paraformaldehyde.
In water, an equilibrium exists between formaldehyde anddihydroxymethane. Aqueous formaldehyde and most reaction products tend to emitsome free formaldehyde. A number of unique properties are offered by formaldehyde.Foremost, it is cheap, readily available, reactive, easily handled, andefficient. The end products made with formaldehyde are durable andnon-yellowing as compared to those made with other aldehydes.
Without formaldehyde as the building block, the performanceand value of a broad array of products that benefit from its chemistry wouldsuffer. Home buyers would likely face increased Formaldehyde is normallypresent in costs or reduced performance from human blood at a low steady-stateconstruction materials such as plywood, particleboard and fiberboard used inhousing and furniture. In a like manner, many textile products would alsosuffer in performance .Other affected sectors would include automotivematerials and personal care products
World consumption of 37% formaldehyde solution was about 28million metric tons in 2006, up from 24 million metric tons in 2003. Between2003 and 2006, world capacity grew at an average annual rate of 3.9% whileworld consumption grew at an average rate of 5.4%. Most of the production wentinto resins for building materials. These resins included urea-formaldehyde,phenol-formaldehyde, polyacetal, and melamine-formaldehyde. Textile chemicalsamounted only to a few percent of the world consumption. In the early years ofthe twentieth century, French chemists studied the reaction of formaldehydewith cotton to improve wrinkle resistance-and to control shrinkage. Derivativesof formaldehyde are now preferred in order to obtain a better balance ofphysical properties and to reduce environmental impacts. Today, a largepercentage of cellulose-containing textiles are processed with such products.
Originallypublished in New Cloth Market: February 2010
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