The Encirc site in Cheshire, England offers its customers the world’s only complete beverage supply chain solution for glass products.

The company’s 360 model allows global brands to bulk ship their wine to be filled into bottles made at the same facility and then delivered directly to retailers.

Having experienced its most successful year to date in 2020, with its filling lines being at almost full capacity Encirc’s upcoming investment in its Beverages facilities will increase its filling capacity by up to 40%.

The plans will mean the introduction of a new filling line at the Cheshire site among other new projects.

The usual Training Day held on the day before Furnace Solutions was cancelled due to the pandemic, instead the Society of Glass Technology have a series of five, one-off training seminars held online on the second Wednesday of the month, starting in October.

The speakers and topics are presented below.

Wednesday 13th October 2021: Thermal balance and furnace screening: a periodic audit to reduce emissions and increase energy efficiency presented by Walter Battaglia of Stazione Sperimentale del Vetro (SSV).

Wednesday 10th November 2021: Forehearth Audits – is your glass conditioning equipment at its best? Presented by Alan Stephens of Five Stein.

AGC is co-sponsoring the Japan Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai to be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from October 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022.

The Dubai Expo is the first ever World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia regions and is expected to attract about 25 million visitors.

The theme of the Japan Pavilion, “Where ideas meet” provided for the buildings which expresses the long historical ties between Japan and the Middle East.

AGC supplied low-E insulating double glazing glass with high solar control and thermal insulation, also tempered laminated glass with superior strength and safety in case of breakage.

Located on brownfield land on the edge of St Helens town centre next to the Totally Wicked Stadium, Glass Futures will be a 160,000 sq. ft Centre of Excellence, looking at how carbon can be reduced from the glass production process.

Landowner and developer Network Space has appointed Civil & Remediation Ltd, an earthworks and remediation contractor to prepare the wider site for future development and significant progress is being made.

What was once a colliery before becoming a glassworks, has left a legacy of heavy metal concentrations together with gas and asbestos contamination.

This phase of the project will now take around a month to complete before the main construction works start in late autumn.

The successful manufacture of architectural glass by NSG Group at the Pilkington Greengate, St Helens site using hydrogen power was another step in the aims to reduce carbon emissions by 2% per annum during the three-year period of the Revival Plan 24.

This also provides a view to achieving 21% reduction in 2030 compared to the 2018 levels.

In the three week trial NSG managed to achieve a seamless transition between air-gas firing and air-hydrogen firing, with regenerative air preheating.

The trial proved that hydrogen was as capable as natural gas in achieving excellent melting performance and that it could be possible to operate the furnace with vastly reduced carbon emissions. It is a key step in the Group's plans to decarbonize.

Saint-Gobain has sold the French company Aurys Glassoultions, which specializes in shaping and processing of flat glass, to a former manager of Saint-Gobain.

The Group has also sold the German company GVG Deggendorf, which specializes in tempered glass, to the Swiss Arbonia group.

Aurys employs around 145 people at its Carentan-les-Marais (Manche) site and generated around €20 million in sales in 2020.

The Deggendorf site in Bavaria employs 160 people and achieved a turnover of around €20 million in 2020.

This transaction is part of Saint-Gobain’s continued portfolio optimisation strategy to enhance the Group’s growth and profitability profile.

www.saint-gobain.com

O-I’s facilities across France have invested in centralised computer control systems for air compressors, which translates into lower energy needs, fewer emissions, and substantial cost savings.

The company aims to be the most sustainable producer of the most sustainable rigid packaging.

A plant’s compressed air system serves vital functions, driving machine movements and other uses throughout the glass packaging manufacturing process.

It’s among a plant’s more energy-intensive systems, but the new computer software helps the system work more efficiently and decreases that electricity demand.

Decreasing that demand also saves on a plant’s energy costs.

On 13 June 2021, GHGSat captured the first-ever satellite observation of methane emissions from trona mining activities, from the Green River Basin, Wyoming - the location of the world’s largest natural deposit.

This is claimed to be a world-first.

Trona is a sodium carbonate compound extracted from underground mines and processed into soda ash.

Predominantly used to manufacture glass for the automotive and construction industries it is also the raw material for baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), laundry and cleaning products, and used in the manufacture of cloth and paper.

Following positive feedback from the first two ‘Electric Systems for Glass Melting’ introductory training courses staged by CelSian this year, a third course has been scheduled for 14-17 September 2021.

“Thanks to the feedback of the early adapters/participants we are busy tuning, reshuffling and adding content to the course which is now even more attractive and interactive than it was in the first place,” commented René Meuleman, Business Development Director at CelSian.

Electricity will play a major role in the ongoing energy transition needed to reduce CO2 emissions. Although electric melting of glass is an old technology, there is still a need for more research and specifically education.