SCHOTT’s aim to become climate neutral by 2030 sees the company launch a pilot project at its headquarters in Mainz to test large-scale use of hydrogen in glass production.

The company and its project partners are investing more than €714,000, including an award of around €338,000 from the European Regional Development Fund to develop a climate friendly glass melting process.

In this trial, the R&D experts at SCHOTT will gradually replace natural gas with hydrogen.

Over the course of a month, the ratio of hydrogen in the natural gas/hydrogen mixture will be gradually increased to up to 35% by volume in three test phases lasting around 10 days each.

This large-scale test is breaking new ground for the specialty glass industry.

The company will use these experiments to learn more about the effects of hydrogen in glass melting processes.

The long-term goal is to greatly reduce carbon emissions in the long term.

"Becoming climate neutral means that we have to come up with groundbreaking technological innovations," explained Dr. Jens Schulte, member of the Board of Management and responsible for the Zero Carbon program at SCHOTT. “Transforming our glass melting technology is a highly complex process with many technical hurdles. That’s why we would like to thank our partners for awarding us these grants to support these innovative projects.”

www.schott.com

Image: A look inside the melt: specialty glass is melted at temperatures of up to 1,700°C. Photo: SCHOTT