By Tuomo Heikkinen, Vice President, Head of Biochemicals and Lignin Applications at Stora Enso

If an interior designer told you that the piece really tying the room together contained formaldehyde, you might think they were referring to an imitation Damien Hirst statement piece. In fact, formaldehyde – along with another toxic group of chemicals, isocyanates – is an almost ubiquitous component of all panelboard based furniture.  

You might ask: so what? This is a longstanding industrial practice and, though formaldehyde and isocyanates are known to be toxic, there has yet to be a widespread public health scare linked to its use in panelboard. This is no asbestos, after all.

Nonetheless, I would like to advocate for change. Because today, better alternatives are available to panelboard producers and the users of their products, such as furniture manufacturers. Ones with less harmful potential impacts on both health and the environment. Just because a particular product or process has cemented itself as the status quo, does not mean it cannot or should not be improved upon.

In this case, the change in question is the advent of bio-based, and fossil-fuel, formaldehyde and isocyanate free fibre boards and panels.

To demonstrate that this change is feasible though, we must establish three things: that there are pressures creating incentives to change, that the change is possible, and that it is potentially profitable.

Pressure points: why forgo formaldehyde?

The Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) labels formaldehyde as both a serious health hazard (GHS08) and for acute toxicity (GHS06). Moreover, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) database lists it as carcinogenic and a suspected mutagen. Both acute and prolonged exposure are associated with a range of adverse health outcomes.

Isocyanates have also been linked to numerous damaging effects, most famously following the 1984 Bhopal disaster. The specific risks and tolerances vary depending on the specific compound used, but the overarching point is clear: these substances can be harmful to human health.

Though the most extreme of these effects are likely to be linked to health and safety failures in industrial settings, the risks to the wider public of cumulative exposure through indoor air quality are also concerning. To this end, the EU has introduced legislation to limit the maximum allowable emission limits for formaldehyde in consumer products, including furniture, with the rules due to take effect in 2026.

The impact of this legislation remains to be seen. It may be that most products on the market today already meet the requirements, and furniture manufacturers experience little short-term inconvenience. However, this sets a clear direction of travel and a statement of intent to reduce exposure to these chemicals that may induce the most responsible manufacturers to explore alternatives.

Possibility: a realistic alternative

Even if there is a desire to reduce formaldehyde and isocyanate use, for change to be possible, there must be an alternative in place.

Fortunately, innovations in the materials economy are beginning to deliver such alternatives for the use-case of fibre-boards and panels. Ecor Global has begun producing a fully bio-based, recyclable and formaldehyde- and isocyanate-free fibre board, using Stora Enso’s NeoLigno as the binder. This approach by Ecor Global follows just a few years after influential Finnish wood-processing firm Koskisen Oyj first put this process into practice, making use of NeoLigno as a key part of the formula for its own line of furniture boards called Zero Panels.

NeoLigno is produced using lignin, a naturally occurring material found in wood and a side stream material from the pulp industry that is typically utilised for bioenergy today. Crucially, it is completely free of formaldehyde and isocyanates, as well as offering environmental advantages as a renewable material with carbon sequestration properties – a sharp contrast to fossil-fuel based binders.

With formaldehyde among the top 25 most abundantly produced chemicals in the world,  it may not be possible or desirable to displace it completely, but the advent of new bio-based alternatives demonstrates that change is possible for a significant number of applications.

Profitability: does it add up?

Replacing a widespread industrial chemical is usually assumed to incur a cost. Indeed, opting for novel materials that are produced at a small scale by an ambitious start-up may be an expensive option, available only to high-end manufacturers concerned with the pinnacle of health and environmental performance.

However, in the case of NeoLigno, the base material – lignin – is already produced widely at industrial scale with robust and established supply chains. It does not displace food production – a common concern for some bio-based materials – and can be competitive with traditional binding options.  

Part of the furniture no longer

Forget artistic works of sharks suspended in formaldehyde solutions, the fact is that formaldehyde (and isocyanates) are ever-present in our lives; contained in the building materials and consumer goods that surround us and furnish our homes.

However, new bio-based materials offer a glimpse of a future where this does not have to be the case – or at least to a much lesser extent. Formaldehyde does not have to be just part of the furniture, and progressively minded manufacturers may find an eager market in consumers keen to reduce their exposure to harmful chemicals while lowering environmental impact.