On 18 May at 14:00 CET, GlassTrend will host an online session entitled ‘Hydrogen as a fuel for industrial heating processes’ as part of the consortium’s spring series of webinars for its members.

Energy-intensive industrial production processes, for example in the glass, food and ceramic sectors, have a major challenge to decarbonise existing heating processes.

A fast and sustainable route to reduce the carbon intensity of these processes is to replace natural gas with hydrogen. However, the technology for this is not yet available.

In this presentation by Sander Gersen from DNV (pictured), the technical challenges will be discussed when adding hydrogen to natural gas with regard to burner performance.

Glass Futures has appointed Italian glass engineers Stara Glass S.p.A to design its 30tonne/pd experimental Research & Development furnace – the core of Glass Futures Global Centre of Excellence being built in St Helens in the UK.

Stara Glass is part of the Hydra Group of companies which provides depth across the glass industry supply chain including equipment, construction, warm up, and R&D.

Based in Genoa, northern Italy, the Stara Glass team also has close ties with the city’s renowned university. 

Stara Glass has confirmed its joining Glass Futures as an Affiliate Member to begin looking at technology development following the announcement that global drinks leaders Heineken and Diageo have also joined Glass Futures as Corporate Members.

Verallia Deutschland AG, a subsidiary of the Verallia Group, and Remondis Recycling GmbH & Co KG have signed a joint venture (JV) agreement to form a company called VERRE Recycling GmbH & Co KG.

Both Verallia and Remondis will bring two different waste glass processing plants into the joint company, including Verallia Deutschland’s processing plant in Bad Wurzach – founded in the early 1970s and considered the cradle of global glass recycling – and Remondis’ plant in Koblenz.

The Glass Packaging Institute (GPI) has announced a new “A Circular Future for Glass” initiative

This is a 10-year plan to raise the U.S.’s glass recycling rate to 50 percent and boost the average use of recycled content in domestically made glass containers. GPI partnered with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to undertake the study, design study solution sets in different regions, and develop a set of options for achieving that goal.

“A Circular Future for Glass” has three important pillars:

A new competition offers design students and young designers under 30 a chance to design using the most innovative glass packaging decoration.

The O-I : EXPRESSIONS DESIGN AWARDS 2021 challenges young designers to create innovative and appealing glass packaging for a spirits brand. The brief for the pack contains a very real issue faced by spirits brand owners – how to convey both premium brand cues and enhanced sustainability.

Verallia has deployed over the last four years an ambitious plan to roll out Glass Service Expert System III (ES III), an advanced control system that enables to face industry 4.0 challenge with process chain digitalization in order to release productivity barriers.

Guardian Glass honoured the glaziers and fabricators of seven commercial projects at its annual Commercial Project Awards event on 15 April. More than 40 projects were nominated from work completed in 2020.

“Guardian Glass is privileged to recognise incredible glass designs in architecture from our glazier and fabricator partners,” said Rick Zoulek, Vice President, Guardian Glass, Americas. “These impressive facades showcase why glass is a preferred building material in commercial construction."

Gerresheimer is one of a total of 19 glass producers who have joined forces in a project with the aim of achieving climate-neutral glass production. In collaboration with the Ardagh Group, they want to drive forward the development, financing and operation of a hybrid electric melting furnace.

To this end, an industrial-scale furnace is being built in Obernkirchen, Germany, for the commercial production of glass containers from renewable electricity. The demonstration facility will be built in 2022, with initial results available in 2023. Both technical and market-specific criteria for melting glass to produce glass packaging on a large scale will be evaluated.

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, believes technology specialist CelSian.

The company is running an introductory ‘Electric Systems for Glass Melting’ training course aimed at those who are not familiar with, or would like to refresh their knowledge of electrical furnace boosting, all-electric melting and many aspects of the electrical systems in and outside the furnace.