Formose Project - Project Background

The Formose Project has benefited from the financial support of the European Community LIFE-Environment programme. LIFE-Environment aims to implement Community policy and legislation on the environment in the European Union and candidate countries. This approach enables demonstration and development of new methods for the protection and the enhancement of the environment.

In 1999 the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) published a document entitled: "Formaldehyde, Introduction to Health, Safety and Environmental protection". This document states: "High concentrations of formaldehyde are highly toxic to living organisms".

In 2002 Solutia commissioned a laboratory to perform a toxicity evaluation of individual process streams. The study report "Direct toxicity assessment (DTA) of effluent samples for Solutia UK ltd" dated October 2002 identified formaldehyde and phenol to be the main two substances contributing to toxicity of final effluent.

Formaldehyde was found to be contributing about 70% of the total effluent toxicity despite comprising only ~17% of the C.O.D. (chemical oxygen demand).