Abstract

Managing municipal waste has been an ever-complex and critical common issue worldwide. Municipal waste leads to the generation of landfill Leachate (LL), a highly polluting liquid that is described by its complex composition. This study investigated the probability of utilizing LL as a partial replacement for water in the synthesis of Phenol-Formaldehyde (PF) resol resin. The impact of LL addition on the resin’s physical properties, thermal stability, and bonding quality was investigated. The outcomes demonstrated that the addition of LL influenced several key resin properties, including increased viscosity, decreased pH, increased solids content and free formaldehyde content. Furthermore, the thermal stability of the resins was noticed to decline with increasing LL levels, to be expected due to the presence of organic compounds in the leachate. Both under dry and wet conditions, the bonding quality measurement revealed a decrease in tensile strength for the samples bonded with LL-modified PF resins compared to the control resin. According to these experimental findings, it can be recommended to limit the substitution of pure water with LL in the resin synthesis to a maximum of 20% to mitigate possible negative impacts on resin properties and bonding performance. Finally, LL containing high organic matter can be used in some synthesis processes to add to the economy by minimizing the environmental impact.

Keywords:Landfill leachate; Phenol; Resol resin; Tensile shear strength; TGA analysis