Furnace Solutions 2023 will present the views of glass producers as they transition towards Net-Zero, practical guidance on electric and hybrid melting, hydrogen, alternative raw materials, and sustainable refractory development. Conference registration opens at 08.00 on Wednesday 7 June and the day kicks-off with a welcome from St. Helens Borough Council.

Stuart Hakes, immediate past President of the SGT, provides a preview of the event.

Day 1

The first speaker will be from the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN – part of Innovate UK. This talk will be on “Government support for industrial De-carbonisation” by Jenni McDonnell MBE, Thermal Energy Systems Manager.

Ms McDonnell will be followed by Sven Roger Kahl of Ardagh Glass giving a talk on “Ways to make container glass more sustainable until 2030 and beyond”. We hope this will include some insights into Ardagh’s approach from their bigger customers, particularly in the high volume container business who wish to be seen to be green.

The next presentation will be by Ms Burcin Gul Arslanoglu of Sisecam. Her presentation will be on “Pushing the Limits of Production in Float Furnaces”. One of the major global players in the glass industry, Sisecam is unusual in that they are the only company in the world who operate across containers, flat glass, fibres, tableware and heat resisting glass.

Finally, the morning will conclude with a presentation from Sebastian Woltz of EME giving a talk on the “Batch plant concept for Glass Futures”. This is a potentially very interesting talk as the specification for Glass Futures had to encompass a much higher range of potential raw materials and cullet sources which need to be carefully monitored during the melting process.

After lunch there will be a presentation by Pierrick Vespa from Saint-Gobain/SEFPRO on their development of “New fused cast refractories to extend the lifetime of net zero carbon glass”. It is expected that this talk will include some of their developments in new compositions for such specialist areas as furnace bottom and electrode blocks, which will be of particular interest due to the likely increased usage of boost and electric melting in the glass industry going forward.

We then have a departure from normal presentations in that we will have presentations from Matthew Demmon of MKD32 and Steve Whettingsteel from Krysteline Technologies, moderated by Dr Nick Kirk of Glass Technology Services. In this, the different presenters will show various approaches to collecting and using cullet. We expect a lively discussion and debate as there have been comments that some of these approaches are to the detriment of the industry. We hope this new feature of bringing together conflicting opinions will be extremely useful and be more interactive.

The final presentation of day one will be Rob Ireson of Glass Futures giving an update on the latest research into “Fuel Switching Carbon Capture Technologies” as undertaken by Glass Futures.

There will then be provision for tours of the Glass Futures building which will have officially been opened the day before. This is the first opportunity for people attending Furnace Solutions and the industry generally to view the facility. A special registration has to be made for this. Following this there will be the Geoff Evans Memorial Dinner.

Day 2

The following day will start with a presentation by John Egan from Progressive Energy talking about the “Hy-Net: making low carbon happen”. The Hy-Net is the Hydrogen Reticulation system proposed for the Northern Power Corridor. This is especially important to those who feel that hydrogen is an option for glass melting in the future.

There will then be another joint approach by Stuart Hakes, CEO of FIC (UK) Limited and Andy Reynolds, Chief Executive and Global Business Development Manager of Fives Stein. These presentations will be on the “Case for Electric Melting”. This will be the opportunity to see the differing approach to electric melting and a discussion of some of the ideas that are felt to be dead-ends and some that offer better opportunities.

This will be followed by a presentation by Chris Holcroft of Glass Technology Services on the “Circular Economy and Secondary Raw Materials in Glass Manufacturing”.

There will be a presentation from Daniella Nessina of RHI Magnesita on “Melter Crown Lining for a sustainable glass furnace.” This will be followed by a presentation from Bartlomiej Kubera and Kasper Kaczmarek of Forglass, their presentation will be on “Mixing electrodes, the tool for glass current control and reduction of specific energy consumption”. It is also hoped that there could be presentations, although not confirmed, by Encirc and NSG giving an update on their de-carbonisation plans.

The day will conclude with the Michael Garvey Award which is given in memory of the Guardian employee, Michael Garvey, for the best presentation.

Registration and sponsorship

This should be a very exciting Furnace Solutions with some innovative and new formats for presentations which I hope will be much more interactive than previously.

With Glass Worldwide a supporter, we have a good level of sponsorship so far including AMETEK Land, Calumite, DSF Refractories, FIC, FIVES, Forglass, Guardian Glass, Glass Technology Services and HFT at the time of writing. We expect more sponsors, many of whom have contributed in the past, to join us. The advantage of sponsorship is that it allows one participant to attend free of charge as well as publicity materials and a magazine rack for information on products.

Registration is available on the website. The two-day-conference is £80 per day for SGT members and £150 per day for non-members. The Geoff Evans Memorial Dinner is £33.60.