Glass International November 2019

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November 2019—Vol.42 No.10

COMPANY PROFILE: EMBALVIDRO FURNACE LIGHTING COMPANY PROFILE: PIRAMAL GLASS PERFUME INVESTMENT PHOENIX BANQUET REVIEW A GLOBAL REVIEW OF GLASSMAKING

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Glass International November 2019

The future of batch plant technology – today

Batch Plants | Cullet Plants | Preheating | Factory Cullet Recycling Glass Recycling | Batch Charging | Glass Level Controlling Modernization | Automation | Engineering | Maintenance & Service

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To make glass better, put us in the mix.

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Contents

www.glass-international.com Editor: Greg Morris Tel: +44 (0)1737 855132 Email: gregmorris@quartzltd.com

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Designer: Annie Baker Tel: +44 (0)1737 855130 Email: anniebaker@quartzltd.com

November 2019 Vol.42 No.10

Sales Director: Ken Clark Tel: +44 (0)1737 855117 Email: kenclark@quartzltd.com Sales Executive: Manuel Martin Quereda Tel: +44 (0)1737 855023 Email: manuelm@quartzltd.com

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Company profile: Embalvidro Angolan container plant lights furnace

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Company profile: Bormioli Pharma Bormioli Pharma unveils expanded plant

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Environment Are refillable bottles the answer to packaging sustainability?

21

Environment: Sorg The furnace of the future?

24

Company profile: Piramal Glass Piramal expands premium perfume footprint

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Environment: Glass Technology Services Low carbon fuels - the sustainable future for glass manufacturing

30

Phoenix Banquet Review Prof Alicia Duran accepts Phoenix award

34

Environment: Vertech’ When ecological requirements meet economic interests

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Environment: Fives All electric melting for container glass

42

Environment: CelSian Software to improve energy efficiency

44

Environment: Nippon Gases Combustion technology to reduce emissions

48

Inspection: Heye International A retrofit option for inspection

49

Events review: British Glass An appreciation of glass

51

Recycling: Deakin University A concrete concept for the construction industry

54

History Frederik Carder (Part 2)

Managing Director: Steve Diprose Chief Executive Officer: Paul Michael Subscriptions: Elizabeth Barford Tel: +44 (0)1737 855028 Fax: +44 (0)1737 855034 Email: subscriptions@quartzltd.com

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Published by Quartz Business Media Ltd, Quartz House, 20 Clarendon Road, Redhill, Surrey RH1 1QX, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1737 855000. Fax: +44 (0)1737 855034.

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Editor’s Comment + International news

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Assistant Editor: George Lewis Tel: +44 (0)1737 855154 Email: georgelewis@quartzltd.com

1 Glass International November 2019

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International News

2019 DIARY

GREG MORRIS, EDITOR WWW.GLASS-INTERNATIONAL.COM

November 2019—Vol.42 No.10

November

COMPANY PROFILE: EMBALVIDRO FURNACE LIGHTING COMPANY PROFILE: PIRAMAL GLASS PERFUME INVESTMENT PHOENIX BANQUET REVIEW A GLOBAL REVIEW OF GLASSMAKING

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

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Glass International November 2019

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Driven to distraction

The latest edition of the magazine is here in your hand, proof of another month’s efforts here at Glass International towers.

But there are days when I wonder how on earth anything gets achieved by anyone at work?

In these days of blanket internet coverage, email, mobile phones and a proliferation of social media sites, there are plenty of distractions.

It used to be that downtime was spent by the water cooler catching up on the weekend, or a quick 10-minute cigarette outside. But these seem old-fashioned to the variety of modern diversions that grab attention away from our roles.

It is a different landscape now with social media notifications, mobile phone messages and, of course, emails to action. For many in an industry where contacts are global, the use of messaging sites such as WhatsApp has become integral.

While this is fantastic to enable us to instantly find out what is happening on the other side of the world it does have its drawbacks.

Trying to focus on writing an important article or submitting a crunch report is difficult now. Combined with other regular tasks such as daily meetings and updates from colleagues, time spent to concentrate has become more precious.

Now, if you would allow me, I’ll carry on with the next article. But I’ll just check that Linked In notification first....

The future of batch plant technology – today

FRONT COVER IMAGE: www.zippe.de

21 - 22 Sisecam International Glass Conference Glass in the Sustainable Future Istanbul, Turkey www.glassconferencesisecam.com

Batch Plants | Cullet Plants | Preheating | Factory Cullet Recycling Glass Recycling | Batch Charging | Glass Level Controlling Modernization | Automation | Engineering | Maintenance & Service

Be first with the news!

VISIT: www.glass-international.com for daily news updates

O-I plots European MAGMA expansion O-I is already planning to expand its European MAGMA glass manufacturing process.

The world’s largest container glassmaker announced in September it will install the technology at its Holzminden, Germany plant following a successful installation in its Streator, USA plant.

But now it has reported it is planning the implementation of a further three additional lines in Europe.

Andreas Lopez, O-I CEO and President said: “MAGMA is a top priority for O-I and the first shipments from our Streator pilot plant were an important milestone in the third quarter.

21 Glass Focus A daytime conference and an awards evening over dinner.

Sheffield, UK www.britglass.org.uk/glassfocus-2019

The next MAGMA line will be located in Holzminden, Germany, to support R&D efforts and provide incremental supply to growing segments.

The Holzminden line is expected to give us further data about MAGMA capabilities that it expects will enable three additional line applications in Europe in 2021 and 2022.

“MAGMA represents a breakthrough innovation that helps remove the historic constraints facing glass and enable future profitable growth.”

O-I said it will allow for ultra-flexible glass production that can be expanded rapidly and at low capital intensity.

February 2020

25 - 26 Glassman Asia A conference on the latest trends and issues in the industry.

Seoul, South Korea https://glassmanevents.com/ asia

March 2020

23 ICCG 13 The conference for advanced coatings for large-area or highvolume products.

Braunschweig, Germany https://13.iccg.eu/en/home 31 Glasstrend Belgium A meeting focussing on raw materials hosted by Sibelco.

Sibelco HQ, Belgium https://www.glasstrend.nl/

April 2020

14-17 China Glass Exhibition for equipment for all glass types.

Shanghai, China http://www.ceramsoc.com/

May 2020

13-14 Glassman Latin America A return to Mexico focussing on container glassmaking.

Monterrey, Mexico https://glassmanevents.com/ latin-america

June 2020

03-04 Furnace Solutions Training Day & Conference The 15th training day and conference.

Stoke-on-Trent, UK http://furnacesolutions.co.uk/

2 Glass International November 2019

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International News

NEWS IN BRIEF

Glaston to sell Mexican glass business

Verallia celebrates French furnace investment The reconstruction provided an opportunity to use the latest technologies and more modern materials, in particular to improve the energy performance and environmental impact of the facilities, in line with the group’s environmental commitments.

The new furnace has a new combustion control system that promotes its homogeneity and therefore reduces hot spots, which emit nitrogen oxides.

This modernisation also im-

proves the reliability of the installations, the quality of the production and contributes to improving the working conditions of employees.

The work also provided an opportunity to deploy an ambitious training programme me of more than 1,000 hours, organised around the use of modernised machines, occupational safety, production quality and industrial excellence, a Verallia priority.

EMS Group to buy Zecchetti EMS Group has completed the acquisition of Italian group Zecchetti.

Alongside Zecchetti, the group also includes four brands of the Emilian ‘packaging valley’.

The acquisition of Zecchetti

will result in a global expansion of the customer base, particularly in the USA, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.

Zecchetti is located 500m from the EMS Group headquarters.

It had the best performance

in terms of growth in the cold end of the glass sector, thanks to a highly aggressive commercial strategy.

The merger means a growth in turnover of €130-200 million, and an increase in the number of employees.

It operates two furnaces and produces 155,000 tonnes of glass a year and employs 257 people.

Saverglass’ group management has said the offer can reinforce the production capacity of its current plants, enabling

Furnace refractory maintenance provider Fosbel is to enhance its audit and inspection services to include SmartMelter radar technology.

Fosbel will be the first company to join the SmartMelter Certified Partner programme.

The Certified Partner Program allows furnace audit and repair providers to incorporate SmartMelter radar technology into their audit, inspection and maintenance programmes, combining visual, thermal, endoscopy and radar scans in a SmartAudit.

Fosbel will begin offering SmartAudit services from January 2020.

Saint-Gobain to sell South Korean activity

Saverglass to buy Vidrala’s Belgium group MD Verre Saverglass Group has had an offer accepted by Spanish glass manufacturing Group Vidrala to obtain 100% of shares in its Belgian subsidiary MD Verre.

The MD Verre factory is located in Ghlin, near Mons in Belgium.

Fosbel becomes SmartMelter partner

them to better respond to the growing demand for high-end bottles for Wine and Spirit.

Management has begun a process of consultation with the group’s Staff Representative Bodies concerning the interest expressed in this project.

Saint-Gobain is to sell its construction glass activity in South Korea.

Hankuk Glass Industries will be sold to Glenwood Private Equity, an investment management company in Korea.

The transaction should close at the end of 2019 subject to approval.

The company employs 310 people and consists principally of two flat glass production units and a transformation line.

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Container glassmaker Verallia has celebrated the reconstruction of one of its two furnaces at its Lagnieu, France site.

The company invested €24million to rebuild the furnace and modernise the production lines, which specialises in the manufacture of glass food containers.

The furnace, which produces about two million jars per day, has been completely rebuilt and the five production lines it supplies have been modernised.

Glaston Corporation has signed an agreement to divest its pre-processing business in Mexico to Italy’s Bavelloni.

The remaining share of the pre-processing and tools businesses will continue as is, as distribution agreements for Bavelloni’s pre-processing products and tools in Brazil and Singapore remain in force.

Glaston will continue its sales and services in Mexico through its units in Americas supported by Bavelloni Mexico regarding heat treatment projects.

3 Glass International November 2019

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International News

Gerresheimer completes Essen furnace rebuild

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Pharmaceutical manufacturer Gerresheimer has completed a furnace rebuild at its Essen, Germany site.

The facility produces millions of glass containers for the pharmaceutical industry every year.

It said the routine renovation of the furnace means it will use less energy and is much more sustainable than its predecessor.

It means new capacity is available with imme-

diate effect to satisfy the high demand for the production of injection and infusion bottles from type II glass for parenteral solutions.

New furnace technology, the further enlargement of the clean room as well as the automatisation of the testing and packaging systems safeguards the company’s position.

Enlargements will be made to the production hall and the clean room will be increased in size,

while testing and packaging technology will be further automated and brought up to date with the latest technology.

By using new technology, the energy efficiency of the new white glass tank can be improved while at the same time reducing specific CO2 emissions.

As the Center of Excellence for the production of type II glass, the Essen plant will in future also be able to offer parenteral solutions.

Addis Glass expansion plan Ethiopian glass container manufacturer Addis Ababa Glass and Bottle Share Company is seeking to triple its container glass manufacturing capacity.

Addis Glass plans to increase capacity from its current 80 tonnes per day to 240 tons per day by 2022.

The total project is estimated at $40m with the IFC considering providing total financing of $25m alongside an East African based private equity firm which specialises in

growth, buyout and recapitalisation of medium-sized companies.

As part of its diligence process, the private equity player approached the UK based glass specialists, Glass Technology Services (GTS), to provide its assessment of the project and offer technical advice on the company and project.

GTS’ consultancy team reviewed existing production facilities and the proposal for the additional 160 tonnes/day production lines.

GTS assisted Addis Glass to refine its proposal and strengthen its ability to secure financing.

It means Addis Glass is well positioned in low CO2 glass production.

The project is now at the design and implementation stage and GTS will continue to support Addis Glass.

The project team is seeking further external project management support and senior technical resources to assist with the implementation of the project.

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Iris Inspection grows sales 20% French inspection solutions specialist Iris Inspection machines has recorded a 20% improvement in sales for 2019.

It said increased global demand for the company’s non-contact glass container inspection technology had required manufacturing capacity to be doubled

during the final quarter at its headquarters on the outskirts of Lyon.

The expansion was made possible by the acquisition of additional premises and the relocation of production/assembly operations last year and by hiring additional, multi-lingual engineers.

At the heart of the business increase is the success achieved for NEO EVO5 and EVO12 inspection machines.

In total, there are now >1400 operational IRIS machines in the field, with NEO designs increasingly specified as the equipment of choice.

Glass International November 2019

11/11/2019 14:48:57

If it’s in your glass, we’ll inspect it.

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INNOVATION | TECHNOLOGY | SALES | TRAINING | SUPPORT

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International News

Top 10 stories in the news

NEWS IN BRIEF

Digital glassmakers’ periodic table released

Following unprecedented demand for the glassmakers’ periodic table, Glass Technology Services has released a digital version of the poster.

The digital edition of the bespoke periodic table poster - highlighting the elements commonly used as well as their role in glassmaking - will now be available by request.

You can request a digital copy of the glassmakers’ periodic table by visiting the Glass Technology Services website.

Verallia regenerate two plant areas

The Verallia group has teamed up with PUR Project to introduce a programme aimed at integrating its sites into their local surroundings through landscaping projects with a social and environmental impact.

The concept of the programme is to help regenerate local ecosystems in Seville Spain and Cognac, France by planting endemic species and creating “corridors” of biodiversity while better integrating the Verallia sites into the local landscape by reducing visual pollution.

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Two million pounds of glass avoids US landfill

Over two million pounds of glass avoided Colorado landfills in July and August thanks to a partnership between the End of Waste Foundation (EOW), Rocky Mountain Bottling Company and Momentum Recycling.

The collaboration began in June and creates a sustainable and circular economy in the glass industry to tackle a recurring issue in Colorado, USA. Reaching this goal amounts to saving 4.6 million tonnes of glass from landfills and represents a 1.6 milliontonne reduction in CO2 emissions per year.

The reduction in CO2 emissions is akin to taking 313,470 passenger vehicles off the road per year.

Our most popular news over the past month, as determined by our website traffic All full stories can be found on our website, www.glass-international.com/news � 1. O-I plots European MAGMA glass � 2. Addis Glass plans to triple production capacity � 3. Bormioli Pharma unveils €20 million plant � 4. O-I confirms strategic review � 5. EMS Group agrees deal to buy Zecchetti � 6. Glass container recycling rates hits high � 7. Wiegand-Glas invests in four LWN fans � 8. Glaston to sell glass Mexican business � 9. Angola’s Embalvidro plant set for furnace lighting today � 10. Piramal Glass outlines €30 million premium perfume investment

UK DRS scheme causes concern Concerns are being raised over proposals to include glass bottles in the forthcoming Scottish deposit return scheme for drinks containers.

The Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) due to be introduced in Scotland following new legislation, is aimed at making it easier for everyone to recycle their used drinks containers.

However, waste and drinks industry experts say the inclusion of glass bottles in the scheme is a mistake and will lead to unintended environmental consequences.

Similar recycling deposit return schemes in other countries such as Germany, Finland and Croatia, which have

included glass, have led to brands and consumers making a dramatic shift away from glass in favour of plastic packaging for their products.

This shift towards plastic, which saw a 60% increase in consumption in Germany, was the critical reason for a proposed DRS recently being scrapped in France.

The current plans also risk dealing a body blow to existing kerbside and bottle-bank recycling systems which together currently collect 67% of all glass bottles and jars for recycling in the UK. Dave Dalton, CEO of British Glass, the glass industry trade body said: “We support a De-

posit Return Scheme that significantly increases recycling and the reuse of resources, but under the existing plans, which include glass, this is not the case.

“There is a real danger that the proposed scheme in its current form will become counter-productive, leading to an actual increase in single-use plastic and threaten the viability of current kerbside and bottle-bank glass recycling.”

The shift to plastic as experienced in other countries is because of the higher cost of processing glass associated with this type of scheme.

Emhart: glass demand booming Demand is still growing globally for glass containers, stated Bucher Emhart Glass.

The Swiss supplier of forming and inspection machinery for the glass manufacturing industry said demand for glass containers has outstripped capacity. This has led container glassmakers to invest, expand and modernise their capacities, it said.

“Bucher Emhart Glass benefited from this very positive environment. Its order intake

for glass-forming and inspection machinery increased significantly over the prior-year period,” it stated in its latest financial report.

Sales had again rose considerably from an already high level. Contributing factors were its collaboration with O-I and sales growth in China.

“Despite the expansion in capacities through the optimisation of production processes, the division’s order book is now well above the already

high level of the prior-year period,” it said.

The company has recently sold its refractory division to the Rath Group and acquired Symplex, a specialist in inspection equipment and cameras for gob forming.

Emhart’s order intake between January and September this year increased by 15.4% compared to the year before period, from CHF357 million ($360.4 million) to CHF412 million ($415.9 million).

6 Glass International November 2019

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International News

NEWS IN BRIEF

Mir Stekla venue celebrates 60th anniversary

In connection with the 60th anniversary of the company celebrated on 17th October, Expocentre Fairgrounds hosted a meeting between Director General Sergey Bednov and journalists from the industry.

The meeting ended with the presentation of memorial diplomas and gifts to the press.

The 22nd edition of the Mir Stekla international exhibition will run at Expocentre Fairgrounds from 8th to 11th June 2020.

Wiegand-Glas invests in four LWN fans

LWN Lufttechnik has received an order from Wiegand-Glas to equip four IS machines with cooling fans.

The machines will be in operation in the glass factory in Schleusingen, the largest greenfield glass factory in Germany in February 2020.

LWN’s range includes all process steps from detailed planning to installation and commissioning and includes fans, piping and electrical installation.

O-I plots sale of Australasian glass business O-I is considering the AU$1 billion (US$675.1 million) sale of its Australian and New Zealand glassmaking business.

It has appointed investment bank Goldman Sachs to negotiate the sale.

O-I is the world largest container glassmaker. Its manufacturing operations consist

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exploring options to maximise investor value, focused on aligning the company’s business with demand trends, improving the company’s operating efficiency, cost structure and working capital management, while ensuring the company remains well-positioned to address its legacy liabilities.”

Glass container recycling rate reaches 76% in the EU Data published by the European Container Glass Federation (FEVE) showed that the EU28 average collection for recycling rate for glass packaging grew to the record rate of 76% in 2017.

However, the 76% collection for recycling rate is the average across Europe and masks quite

Production expansion for Uzbeki glassmaker

Glass container manufacturer Asl Oyna from Uzbekistan is celebrating its 10th anniversary by expanding its production capacities from its current 250 tonnes per day.

Between 2020 and 2022, it aims to implement a number of large investment projects aimed both at increasing the export potential and saturating the domestic market.

It also plans to commission three more glass furnaces equipped with modern hightech equipment.

It exports not only throughout the republic of Uzbekistan, but also to neighbouring countries Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and from this year it delivered to Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.

of four glass manufacturing plants in Australia and one in New Zealand.

It said the review was aimed at exploring options to maximise investor value and may result in a divesture.

In its latest financial report the company said: “The strategic portfolio review is aimed at

a diverse situation.

Top performers included Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia with over 90% glass collection rates, just behind are other high achievers like Germany, Ireland and Italy with well beyond 80% rates.

FEVE said that more is need-

ed in countries like Poland, United Kingdom, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary and Portugal where there is a potential for growth.

It said that each country would need its own focused and tailored strategy to ensure more and better recycling.

AGC Europe plans furnace repair at Moustier, Belgium plant

8

After 18 years of uninterrupted production, one of the four float glass furnaces at AGC Glass Europe in Moustier, Belgium will be shut down to carry out a cold repair.

The line produces float glass that is destined mainly for transformation into laminated, coated, silvered, varnished and acid-etched glass products and also serves AGC’s process-

ing and distribution network.

The float line will be refurbished with advanced technologies. AGC said it would substantially improve performance to meet the highest standards in terms of safety, quality and environment.

The design improvements will reduce its energy consumption by 20%, 25% less CO2 and 40% less NOx.

The cold repair is also aimed at an increase of productivity and cost competitiveness of the site.

The float line is planned to shut down in the last quarter of 2019 and is expected to restart production in the last quarter of 2020.

The Moustier site now houses four float lines, one of which is on hold.

Glass International November 2019

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Company profile: Embalvidro

Angolan container glass plant Embalvidro lights furnace

The world’s latest greenfield container glass plant, built by Angolan group Embalvidro, held its furnace lighting ceremony late in October. The company’s Director, Antonio Ruivo, told Greg Morris that it is due to produce its first bottled glass in the middle of November.

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A

greenfield container glass plant in Angola will help supply the African nation’s glass bottle needs as well as those of surrounding countries.

The furnace lighting ceremony for the Embalvidro glass plant took place in late October with the first bottles set for production around the middle of November.

The glass plant will primarily supply beer bottles in green emerald and amber colour to begin with.

Early next year, it will then also add flint glass to its portfolio and begin to manufacture soft drinks bottles.

The site is equipped with Western technology.

The batch plant has been supplied by German engineering group EME, while its sister company Sorg has provided the 180t/day furnace. The furnace is connected to three 10-section, double gob IS machines from Bucher Emhart Glass, while the annealing lehr and cullet return system is from Portugal’s Vidromecanica. Its compatriot, Icebel, has supplied the production and palletising equipment. French organisation Tiama has supplied the inspection machinery while fellow French group Thimon has supplied the shrink wrapping equipment.

� The constructed plant is on the outskirts of the capital Luanda.

For its Director, Antonio Ruivo, the beginning of production marks the culmination of a three-year planning, procurement and construction period.

“The construction of a greenfield glass plant does not happen every day in the industry so I feel really proud to have led and worked with this team.”

There has been a willingness to build a second container glass plant in Angola for a long time.

A group of investors led by Isabel dos Santos, daughter of ex-President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, decided to go ahead. The country already has one container glass plant - Vidrul, owned by the French beverage group Castel - but it is operating at full capacity.

Three years ago Ms dos Santos decided to proceed with the glass plant and appointed Mr Ruivo to lead the team.

Mr Ruivo is an industry veteran and in his 28 years in the sector has worked with BA Glass in his native Portugal as well as in Spain, and has worked with MEG in Egypt.

He had never worked in sub-Saharan Africa before but when the offer he jumped at the chance.

“An opportunity such as this may not come around again so I accepted it. For a glassmaker

10 Glass International November 2019

Company profile Angolan.indd 1

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� The site contains space for a proposed phase 2 and a

like myself it has always been a dream to work on such a project. In the past, I have always had it in my imagination how a glass plant should look like, so now I have achieved my dream.

“It has been tiring but it is also beautiful. I have worked with a really good team who have supported one another so it has been nice.”

The past three years haven’t all been straightforward. The first year was spent planning the glass plant and then securing procurement of all the relevant equipment. Construction started in July 2017 and has taken two years, which Mr Ruivo accepts is a long time.

“It is not rapid, but this is Africa and it is what it is.”

On top of that, the Angolan economy has been stifled in recent years. After years of growth in the early 2000s, low oil prices meant that Angolan GDP shrank by 1.8% in 2018, with inflation at 17.2% in July 2019.

It means Embalvidro may have to export more glass at first while it rides out the domestic economic crisis.

Continued>>

But Mr Ruivo is confident that once the economy picks up, domestic glass consumption will increase and the group will grow. Such is its confidence that it already has plans to expand the site with a second, 260t/day furnace with four lines earmarked.

For now, Mr Ruivo will focus on the task of training the local workforce. The glassmaking facility is based on a 15-acre site in a special economic industrial zone on the outskirts of capital Luanda and will employ 200 people. A total of 26 staff are expats from Portugal and India while the remainder are locals. Embalvidro provided 26,0000 hours of training to the locals in their first year alone and this will continue intensely as production is ramped up to eventually include two job changes a day.

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second furnace.

11 Glass International November 2019

Company profile Angolan.indd 2

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Company profile: Embalvidro

“My dream is for a European glass company to one day hire these local engineers - then I

”

know my work is done!

Embalvidro, Luanda, Angola www.embalvidro.com

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Mr Ruivo said: “It’s good to see local people start learning. It’s not always easy to find the good guys but once you find them you believe in them because they really want to learn.

“My dream is for a European glass company to one day hire these local engineers – then I know my work is done!”

While Mr Ruivo is an experienced glass engineer he says he has learnt a lot by spending the last three years living in Angola.

The transition has been easier as Angola’s national language is Portuguese and much of the food and culture is the same. But while the majority of life is spent either at the glass plant, in the company’s office in downtown Luanda or at home in a gated compound, it is impossible to ignore the poverty faced by the Angolan people.

“The quality of life is very different for the people here. You see people on the streets and families with nothing. People are really struggling and you see hardship every day.”

Local conditions are reflected in the type of glassmaking equipment that has been procured for the plant. While many glassmakers are keen to promote their latest, state-of-the-art, Industry 4.0-compatible technology, much of the equipment is more standard than this.

“All the technology I have in the plant must not be stateof- the-art, otherwise I’m going to fail, it will never work. The idea behind it is to have standard well proven equipment that is reliable.

“You have to adapt to local conditions here otherwise the glass plant will become a white elephant. It’s a challenge within a challenge.”

Angola has vast reserves of gas but no pipeline to transport it to the capital. As a result the furnace will run on heavy oil to begin with but has the capability to be converted to natural gas if need be.

The company has invested in some digital software though.

Its Tiama inspection equipment is equipped with its IQ analysis software. Mr Ruivo has also appointed a Portuguese software group, Primavera, to integrate all the company data.

Although Phase 1 of the Embalvidro project is about to come to an end, Mr Ruivo has no regrets about making the transition to Angola and has enjoyed his time leading the team.

“We have all established a close relationship with one another.

The glassmaking process is still dependent on operators and being part of a team. You have software today but you still depend on operators and their skill. I know the names of 90% of people here and at weekend we do things together. This makes a huge difference. We feel we are all part of the glassmaking team.” �

- Beer & wine bottles - Liquors & spirits bottles - Cosmetics & pharmaceutical containers

CONDAT - F-38670 Chasse-sur-Rhône - Tel +33 (0)478 073 838 www.condat.fr - info@condat.fr

13 Glass International November 2019

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11/11/2019 10:35:13

Company profile: Bormioli Pharma

Bormioli Pharma completes €20 million plant transformation Italian glassmaker Bormioli Pharma recently unveiled its expanded plant and modernised furnace in San Vito al Tagliamento. Greg Morris was the only overseas press invited to the celebratory inauguration of the new-look facility.

2 1

3

B

ormioli Pharma has invested €20 million to revamp and expand its San Vito al Tagliamento plant in north east Italy.

The investment has included a new furnace and the installation of two production lines as well as cutting edge glass making technology.

The site formerly manufactured borosilicate glass for tubular production but following a strategic review the company decided to focus on moulded glass.This meant changing the portfolio of the products made at the site and a larger furnace capable of producing more colours.

www.glass-international.com

Flexibility The company, based in Parma, Italy, said the renovated plant and new furnace will ensure higher production capacity and greater operational flexibility.

The revamped plant was unveiled during a celebratory inauguration, attended by senior Bormioli Pharma staff, local dignitaries as well as regional press.

The furnace is currently operating at 80 tonnes a day with the capability to rise to 110 tonnes per day when a third line is added. It is a regenerative gas fired oven with electrical boosting.

There is a space at the site to add a third production line and to increase capacity to 150 tonnes per day if demand requires it.

The facility manufactures 1.5 million pieces

4

� 1. Its products range from 10ml to 500ml in size.

� 2. CEO Andrea Lodetti addressed the crowd at the inauguration.

� 3. The site has transformed from a tubular to a moulded glassmaker.

� 4. Local dignitaries officially opened the new furnace.

of soda lime glass a day and can produce in flint and amber colours. It will have the capability to increase this figure to 2.5 million items a day.

It supplies glass to more than 100 countries and its product ranges from 10ml vials to 500ml bottles in size.

CEO, Andrea Lodetti, said: “The decision to invest in the renovation and development of the plant responds to the company’s growth plans and the need to improve our level of service.

“It will further reduce lead times and ensure product availability even during periods of periodic maintenance of our production site in Bergantino.

“The construction of this plant further confirms the company’s ability to improve continuously, through the integration and development of its technological skills on production processes.

“With the inauguration of the new plant, we have

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Company profile: Bormioli Pharma

strengthened our position, further establishing the company as a partner of excellence in the global pharmaceutical industry”.

Engineering The plant’s transformation was overseen by the company’s Director of Engineering and Operations, Corrado Ferrozzi, during a year-long process. He is responsible for engineering at the company’s glass and plastic manufacturing sites: four in Italy, one in France in addition to the two new sites in Germany from the recent R&G acquisition.

The renovation at San Vito al Tagliamento included the dismantling of two furnaces dedicated to borosilicate glass tubular production, configuring the new plant layout as well installing new glass manufacturing equipment.

A time frame for such a project could take as long as two and half years but the Bormioli Pharma team did it in less than a year.

Dismantling began in January and production from the new furnace started in August.

Mr Ferrozzi said: “It says something about the engineering department here with huge effort.

The engineering department had been involved from the very beginning of the process with outstanding focus on it.”

He said there was a feeling of huge pride among all the team who had taken part in the project.

“Of course personally I am very proud of what we have achieved but everyone who contributed to make this new plant should feel proud and compliment themselves of a job well done.”

The site is based 90 km north east of Venice and one of the local challenges the engineering team faced was the amount of water in the ground beneath the facility, requiring huge activities to control and timely complete the civil works within the plans.

All the installation activity required almost perfect coordination with all subjects involved for months in a continuous cicle activity.

“You can imagine how deep had been the effort of the Bormioli Pharma Engineering department to expand this factory,” said Mr Ferrozzi. “It was a huge job.”

Mr Ferrozzi has worked for Bormioli Pharma since 2008 coming from long experience in operation in the automotive industries (ie. spaceframes manufacturing for Ferrari luxury car), where among his roles he was responsible for design and relocate manufacturing plants.

While the two businesses are significantly different, many similarities in terms of organisation, management and structure can be identified in the accuracy and high standards required to run such complex businesses.

Intensive training An extra 50 workers were hired as a result of the expansion and the site now employs 130 people.

� 5. Two forming machines from Bottero will give the company extra flexibility.

These two lines will work together with the nine production lines in Bergantino and means the San Vito site can produce articles that are not in production in Bergantino and vice versa.

“In this business you have to be ready and flexible, especially if you want to also reduce the inventory level,” said Mr Ferrozzi.

The plant is Industry 4.0 equipped and has invested in equipment such as the Wenspect machine from Iris Inspection machines and Heye International.

It means the plant is fully connected and is supplied with real time information from the furnace in the hot end to the packaging machines in the cold end. It brings benefits in terms of responsiveness and speed, as well as in quality control where staff have a complete picture of the process and of the quality of the product before it is distributed to customers.

“It has improved our quality control even more in a demanding sector of glass, and has been the base form which we have built our efficiency and quality improvements,” concluded Mr Ferrozzi. �

Bormiloi Pharma, Parma, Italy, www.bormiolipharma.com A video of the new site is available to view at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApNZWtSLEtk

www.glass-international.com

All were given extensive training to gain the skills required for moulded glass production.

This included training to operate and maintain the machines, job changes, mould maintenance and quality control.

It was a complex task realised by putting the experienced staff with newcomers.

Despite having a higher capacity, the site has succeeded in reducing its NOx emissions and has the capability to reduce them even further.

It has also increased its flexibility thanks due to the introduction of two Bottero IS machines, one triple, the other quadruple gob.

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Environment

Are Refillable glass bottles the answer to packaging sustainability?

Emma Bowers and Richard van Breda investigate the opportunities that the often unheralded refillable bottle can bring.

T

he following quote has never seemed more appropriate as the packaging industry continues to come under the environmental microscope: “People who wonder whether the glass is half empty or half full are missing the point.

The glass is REFILLABLE,” by Simon Sinek, speaker and author.

The 3R’s are a reasonably commonsense approach that the overall packaging industry is adopting with regards to the damaging environmental effects on our planet. Reducing packaging waste (and all waste for that matter).

Recycling that packaging (included here is the act of Recovery for its potential to be used for same use packaging again) and also Re-Using it (potentially for its original packaging use, but not always necessarily).

Circular economy models are arising as best practices across all packaging substrates and there are a variety of approaches being developed.

Those approaches, albeit sometimes conflicting, address different factors including infrastructure, available technology, supply chain and customer base requirements.

Could Refillable Bottles Open Opportunities?

One approach that is in the midst of the debate is the return refillable (also known as returnable) glass containers.

As customers and individual consumers become more aware what impact their actions have on our planet, the discussion of single-use (or one-way) packaging versus re-usable (or refillable or returnable) is becoming more frequent in the media.

Refillable packaging was once a common format and it is still used successfully in many markets including across Africa, Latin America, India and parts of Europe such as Germany and Denmark. Over time it has declined,

mostly due to changing consumer behaviours and the trend for increased convenience coupled with continued expansion of the variety and breadth of consumer consumption occasions.

It is interesting to note that for the beer market alone, there is still more volume sold through refillable than one-way.

Re-evaluation?

Perhaps it is time to re-evaluate its reintroduction to help alleviate singleuse packaging concerns.

Not wishing to spark debate on lifecycle analysis or carbon footprint measurement protocols, it is fair to say that ‘one-way’ glass packaging produces a higher carbon impact than many other packaging solutions. Even when high recycled content rates and high recovery/ recycling rates are considered. However, when you add a refillable glass bottle into the comparison, a glass bottle moves to being of the lowest carbon footprint scores compared to one-way glass, which has one of the higher scores (gCO2/L).

This is somewhat of a dichotomy.

The glass manufacturing sector’s initial response is likely to be subdued. This is because customer demand for a refillable container (even though in theory it would likely be slightly heavier in weight to accommodate the different supply chain) would mean less overall tonnage (because customers would require fewer bottles) when compared with that of a ‘one way’ bottle requirement.

However, this is a short-term restrictive mindset and could be limiting the glass industry to the wider opportunity that could be upon them. Yes, like for like, if an existing glass customer was to shift their proposition from a oneway to a comparable refillable bottle it would reduce demand. However, that is just analysing existing demand. If the opportunity presented was for all beverage occasions (sold in metal, plastic, fibre-based, pouches and glass etc.) it then opens up a growth projection for the glass industry for new sectors and new customers.

Consider this. Glass is the only packaging substrate that has a robust proven refillable solution to reach a diverse network of customers and consumers. Current metal cans are not an option in a refillable solution. Plastic (PET or HDPE) packaging can only be re-used a Continued>>

16 0 Glass International November 2019

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WHEN QUALITY MATTERS www.parkinson-spencer.co.uk

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few times. Refillable glass however can be re-used in some cases more than 50 times.

In many cases the number of refill ‘trips’ is limited to consumer return rates rather than bottle performance.

Therefore, if carbon impact were to become a priority metric for sustainable packaging selection then refillable glass could see an unprecidented shift in customer demand. Likewise, should the carbon metric remain as a key metric for packaging choice (and there is little evidence to suggest it won’t) then this threatens ‘one way’ glass with unprecedented consequences.

Does this mean that the refillable scenario is too critical a survival strategy for consumers, brand owners and the glass industry to ignore?

There is no single cookie cutter approach that works for all. Around the world, refillable glass supply chains continue to offer successful solutions for many consumers and customer requirements. However, a solution for one customer and market may not be the solution for others.

Refillable bottle packaging from a cost perspective offers a value proposition versus one-way glass. This is despite the need for the return logistics and bottle washing. However, for brand owners, the initial investment into refillable glass fleets is a significant, complex and requires a long-term commitment.

This high initial investment provides a barrier to entry for competitors, while at the same time it typically provides a competitive advantage, not just from a cost standpoint but also from a channel standpoint. Refillable bottle models work best under controlled supply chains

and sales channels that can maximise packaging collection.

There is no single answer Refillable glass is not a simple solution.

The opportunity for the glass industry to consider ways to help address some of these challenges, in addition to, could be another opportunity to attract more brand owners towards glass than away from it. Communication strategies for brand owners and funding concepts could all offer new opportunities.

Notwithstanding the economics and varied business challenges, it requires a different brand owner and consumer mindset.

The specific infrastructure (existing or potential required), customer capabilities, consumer mindset, brand owner aspirations and consumer mindset will all continue to influence this debate.

As a result of more environmentally conscious consumers, brand owners, retails and leaders in the glass industry, there could be an opportunity to expedite refillable solutions across new sectors that would enable glass packaging to become the genuine all-around holistic solution for sustainable packaging, which will increase demand for glass in the process. �

Richard van Breda Richard van Breda Consulting richard@richardvanbreda.com Emma Bowers Managing Partner, Green Puffin Consulting Limited emma@greenpuffinconsulting.com www.greenpuffinconsulting.com

About the Authors Emma Bowers and Richard van Breda both have extensive experience in packaging and glass particularly. Their specific experience in large global FMCG businesses allows them to provide a fresh perspective to glass manufacturing from both sides of the supply relationship.

In a series of articles, a number of industry relevant topics will be discussed and unpacked. The topics will provide another perspective the industry often reflecting the opinion of the glass customer or consumer. In doing so, they will discuss some opportunities they see for the industry and hope to spark some debate in the process.

They would love to hear from you with any comments, questions or other topics you would like us to cover in upcoming publications.

11/11/2019 12:29:55

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Environment � The SORG VSM All-electric Furnace.

Glassmakers face increased environmental pressure over their emissions during the manufacturing process.

Consumer trends and legislation dictate that emissions must be as low as possible. Dr Hartmut Hegeler* discusses some of the options for glassmakers when they choose their next furnace.

The furnace of the future?

2) Has the topic become much more popular in recent years?

“Yes, absolutely.

The increasing uncertainty about the boundary conditions such as emissions, energies and especially costs make this necessary.

And as the uncertainties tend to become rather more than less, the need for discussion also increases.”

3) Can you describe some of the advances that Sorg has made in this particular topic?

“On the one hand, we think that Sorg can give customers good advice on these issues and provide them with suitable solutions. On the other hand, Sorg already has technologies in its portfolio that support the customers. Examples include the proven all-electric furnace VSM or the electrical auxiliary systems for conventional melting furnaces.”

4) Are there any housekeeping tips/quick gains you could suggest to a glassmaker for them to improve the efficiency of their furnaces?

“Certainly, there are some points to name. This begins with the energetically optimised melting furnace design, especially the regenerative chambers, with regard to combustion technology, energy consumption and emission efficiency, and also the furnace controls.

Furthermore, the optimised insulation of the furnace and the sealing of the system to avoid false air inlets must be named.

These are all points that Sorg already takes into account during the furnace design and are thus provided in every Sorg furnace.”

5) Do you envisage a focus on heat recovery options in the near future, such as a batch or cullet preheaters?

“Many years ago, Sorg began to successfully integrate cullet preheaters and then also batch preheaters into the furnace concepts. The systems show energy savings of up to 16%, and therefore also CO2 reductions of this scale. In addition, if the energy is used to increase the melting capacity, the ‘carbon footprint’ improves once again. Another advantage of the preheaters is that the energy is retained in the system, which enables a higher efficiency compared to other systems. So yes, for Sorg, the use of

preheaters is an elementary component for energy and CO2 reduction.”

6) European glassmakers in particular have to meet stringent future legislation in regards to emissions by 2050. How can Sorg help glassmakers both prepare and to meet this forthcoming legislation?

“Of course, in order to meet the requirements, the initial situation must first be analysed in order to subsequently define the necessary measures. Obviously, this should be compared with the local conditions and possibilities. Customerspecific concepts have to be developed, which, as a basis, include the energetic optimisation of the plant in relation to the entire plant and not just the melting furnace. This is often described by the term ‘housekeeping’ and is carried out

by Sorg, but necessarily together with the customer. This has to be seen as a basis for further measures, such as the above-mentioned possibilities of electric melting, electric auxiliary heating and preheaters, to name only the most important topics. In addition to these measures, Sorg has also developed the SORG S Hybrid Melter. Of course, also the use of alternative renewable fuels comes into consideration.”

Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

1) In your experience of talking to glass manufacturers, does the topic of the environment/energy efficiency/emission reduction often crop up when discussing new projects?

“This topic crops up in nearly all discussions. The new building or the renewal of a furnace is an investment for about the next 10 years. Of course, every operator endeavours to make futureoriented investments, also because of economic constraints.”

21 Glass International November 2019

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Environment

7) How do you anticipate furnaces to evolve over the next, say, 10 years? Are we likely to see increased use of electrical furnaces?

“At the moment, and on the basis of the current discussion and political situation, it seems clear to go in the direction of electric furnaces. Politicians everywhere are driving forward the expansion of renewable energies in order to replace fossil fuels. But to reach the 100% replacement, there is still a long way to go. So nothing speaks against the replacement of ‘conventional’ furnaces by electric furnaces.”

8) Melting concepts such as syngas, plasmelt and induction have been mentioned at recent glass conferences.

What is the likelihood of any of these alternative concepts becoming mainstream?

“All these concepts are very interesting.

However, most of them

� Batch preheater.

have only been operated maximally on a laboratory scale so far and therefore, are still very far away from industrial use in the glass industry. It is definitely worth pursuing these concepts and of course Sorg will track these melting concepts.”

9) Is the future furnace likely to be a hybrid melter? If so, will this type of furnace be restricted by size i.e no larger than 200 t/day?

“Sorg currently sees the future of glass melting in the hybrid melter. Years ago, Sorg built the largest electric furnace VSM with 200tpd. For the previous electric

furnaces we see the limit of melting performance reached at 200tpd. However, as the market requires tonnages of more than 200tpd for economic reasons, we have developed the SORG S Hybrid Melter. With this furnace, tonnages up to 400tpd for container glass or even up to 600tpd for float glass can be melted.

Further developments will certainly make higher melting performances possible in the future.

And another important point is listed for the SORG S Hybrid Melter: The previous electric furnaces are limited in terms of glass colours. In the SORG S Hybrid Melter, amber glass can also be melted without any problems!”

� Sorg’s Hybrid melter.

10) In discussions with glassmakers, what steps do you recommend they take when planning their next furnace? Does your recommendation vary on a regional basis and various local conditions?

“A general recommendation cannot be given in the current situation. The reason for this is that, although the rough goal of the drastic CO2 reduction is given, the implementation route is still unclear. Which regenerative energies are sufficiently and consistently locally available?

What is the price situation? Especially the economic situation has to be clarified with the customers – including the investment costs for the plant adaptation: can prices be maintained or do they increase? And if so, which cost increases approach the end customer?

Of course, the recommendation will be heavily dependent on local conditions and possibilities, as local factors are too diverse. But this is already the case today.

Only that – due to the CO2 discussion – further variables in the concept development have to be considered.

A general recommendation regarding furnace type or heating method will certainly not exist anymore in the future.

Customer and site-specific solutions have to be created, which of course means an intensive consultation and concept phase for the furnace manufacturer in cooperation with the customer.” �

*Research and Development Manager, Sorg, Lohr, Germany www.sorg.de 22 0 Glass International November 2019

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Company profile: Piramal Glass

Piramal Glass expands premium perfume output India’s Piramal Glass is to expand its offering in the premium perfume sector thanks to a €30 million investment in its manufacturing capabilities.

Greg Morris spoke to its Vice Chairman, Vijay Shah.

www.glass-international.com

P

iramal Glass has outlined how it will invest €30 million in its premium perfume manufacturing unit.

The Indian glassmaker supplies the premium perfume glass bottle markets in Europe and the USA and has seen its market share grow at a rate of 20% a year recently.

It will invest €15 million into its Kosamba, India container glassmaking site to add an extra three production lines to help meet the increased demand. It currently has three production lines for premium perfumery at the plant.

Piramal Glass Vice Chairman Vijay Shah said the company would increase its furnace capacity by 40 tonnes to 140t/day during works to be held in Spring next year.

The furnace, supplied by German engineering group Horn, will be relined and expanded.

Piramal will also add two forming lines, supplied

by Italy’s BDF Industries, and convert a nail polish bottle line into a perfume production line. This line will be supplied by Emhart and brings the total number of lines at the facility to eight.

It will increase the company’s capacity by an extra 50 million pieces from its current 300

� The company will invest in its Kosamba, India plant.

million. All three lines are expected on stream by May 2020.

The Mumbai-headquartered group is a container glass specialist. While it manufacturers pharmaceutical glass, cosmetics and perfumery glass as well as food and beverage glass, its focus is on the premium glass packaging segment.

The company supplies major global brands such as Louis Vuitton and Spanish perfume giant Puig.

It has two glass manufacturing operations in India, and one each in Sri Lanka and the USA. It also has glass decoration units in each of these countries.

It has also invested €15 million into a greenfield decoration facility at Kosamba which came on stream in May. Works are ongoing and have included investments in printing, coating and hot foil stamping.

Mr Shah said: “The premium perfume market is a demanding industry and the quality demands are very high for this market. In a sense you’re not just selling perfume packaging you’re selling history.

“These investments will allow us to create sufficient elbow room for growth. There have been many new product developments and we are under tremendous pressure to meet this increased

24 Glass International November 2019

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Company profile: Piramal Glass

demand from our customers because the demand outstrips the supply. Once the investment is complete we will be in readiness to capture a larger share of the perfume business in Europe.”

The company has only been serving the premium sector for 10 years but has grown rapidly since its introduction Mr Shah admits Piramal is a baby in comparison to its older European rivals.

“Perfume glassmaking is as much an art as a science and we have learnt this the hard way. But it is paying off today.

“My belief and focus is if we keep investing, keep growing, keep training, keep getting experts from Europe working with our people shoulder to shoulder is what will teach our people how to continue to make this fine glass.” �

Piramal Glass, Mumbai, India www.piramalglass.com

Tempering Lines on spindles

TEMPERING Lines on belt

RIM tempering

www.glass-international.com

� The company supplies its European and US customers with premium perfumes.

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53035 MONTERIGGIONI (SI) ITALY - Strada di Gabbricce, 6 Tel +39 0577 304730 ifv@fonderievaldelsane.com

www.fonderievaldelsane.com

Environment

Low carbon fuels are the ‘green’ future for glass manufacturing Rob Ireson* provides an update on phase 2 of the Glass Futures Industrial Fuel Switching project and shares plans for Phase 3.

100% renewable sources and other biooils derived from waste carbon-based materials. � Hydrogen - Projects such as HyNet and H21 North of England could provide the UK glass industry access to 100% supply of low-carbon hydrogen. � Large-scale electricity - Electric melting is significantly more efficient than equivalent heating technologies that rely on combustion. � Flexible-hybrid fuel combinations - Many glass furnaces can use an electric boost to complement the natural gas firing in order to control production rates and glass quality. The project explored the feasibility of more complex hybrid fuel scenarios, including ‘Biofuels + Hydrogen + Electric’, ‘Biofuels + Natural Gas + Electric’ and ‘Hydrogen + Natural gas + Electric’.

Opportunities to decarbonise

The Phase 2 study undertook a series of activities which demonstrated that each of the above scenarios could be technically feasible, with the potential to fully decarbonise the glass furnace heating process while meeting regulatory requirements (if the fuel could be supplied at an economic price).

These studies also highlighted that, due to differences between manufacturing

Glass Futures and Glass Technology Services ran a series of industrial engagement workshops and meetings with industrial and academic partners which identified the following four technically viable fuel-scenarios with potential to decarbonise the glass manufacturing process: � Biofuels – Including Biodiesel from

requirements of subsectors (float, container and glass fibre) and predicted future variations in availability and affordability of different fuels across the UK, no single low-carbon fuel scenario is likely to be suitable for all glass manufacturing processes.

Fuels availability The Phase 2 study found that all four low carbon fuel scenarios had the potential to meet the energy needs of the UK glass sector, however each brings uncertainties and associated challenges.

UK industry has historically fired with fossil fuel oils but new bio-oils such as biodiesel are largely focused on the use of wastes and residues from various sources, the most common being food supply chains – used cooking oil methyl ester (UCOME) known as a biodiesel blend and animal fat or tallow known as Tallow Methyl Ester (TME).

Bio-oil production can raise sustainability concerns, however waste and residue plastics and tyres from various supply chains could be converted into fuels. Such oils produced from waste have a low net carbon content and consequently have an economic Continued>>

Fig 1. Illustrative costs of fuel switching options for a glass furnace deployed in 2035 compared to Natural Gas (note that carbon taxes on natural gas are not included in the left hand figure).

www.glass-international.com

T

he UK Glass industry, which predominantly operates with natural gas fired furnaces, produces around 3.5 million tonnes (Mt) of glass per annum, generating more than 2Mt of CO2. Of these emissions, 58% are emitted directly from the combustion of fuel and a further 24% from electrical usage, most of which is used for powering the furnaces.

In April 2019, Glass Futures Ltd secured a £300k grant under the BEIS Industrial Fuel Switching Competition Phase 2 for a six-month project to research the feasibility for the industry to switch to low carbon alternatives – all electric, biofuels, hydrogen and hybrid melting.

Glass Technology Services, a UK provider of testing, consultancy and research to the glass industry, project managed the Phase 2 feasibility study on behalf of Glass Futures.

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Environment

advantage vs traditional fossil fuels in the long-term.

The UK production of biodiesel has been stagnating in previous years mainly due to factors in the road transportation sector which has led to a loss of confidence from investors resulting in facilities operating below installed capacity, however the consensus between producers and studies is that there is enough feedstock accessibility to meet 100% of the fuel needs for the glass sector.

The UK government is making investments into developing hydrogen networks in the UK that utilise the existing natural gas pipeline infrastructure.

Although not currently available, it is likely that certain regions may have access to low carbon hydrogen supply by 2030.

A significant uptake in electric melting also brings about its own challenges notwithstanding that electricity in the UK is currently around three times more expensive than natural gas. For success in this area not only must the UK glass sector secure a supply of ‘green’ electricity at an affordable price, but each site would need to make capital investments to deliver the electricity to the site and then to the melt.

Ultimately the industry’s direction over the coming years will have a large impact on the economic viability of any option. As all industries globally seek the most economically viable route to decarbonisation, there will inevitably be competition. For example, E4tech reported the availability of biofuel feedstock will become constrained until 2030, and consequently, the long-term deployment of biofuels plants in the UK would likely need to rely more on feedstock imports or switching feedstock use from power to biofuel applications.

Economic modelling To provide a provisional indication of how each fuel scenario might compare to natural gas, a high-level cost-modelling exercise was undertaken by Element Energy, supported by Glass Technology Services and furnace designers TECOGLAS and F.I.C UK. The model compared the lifetime furnace costs of different fuel technologies – natural gas, hydrogen, electric, biofuel and flexible hybrid scenarios – including CAPEX, OPEX, fuel cost, carbon cost, rebuild and repair cycles and high/low controls. It should be noted that, due to limited time and budget, there are several additional costs which are not currently included in the model but will

be addressed as part of the proposed Phase 3 study.

Illustrative costs over a 30-year time period are presented below for a 300 t/day container furnace built in 2035 operating on 100% hydrogen, 100% electric and 100% biofuel, as well as the cost difference to a 100% natural gas furnace (Fig 1).

The cost modelling found the dominance of fuel and carbon costs means the residual uncertainty has a significant impact on the economically preferred fuel switching option.

Due to the high level of uncertainty in fuel costs, any of the options could ultimately be the most economically feasible option. However, the proposed low carbon fuels will only become economically attractive if carbon costs or similar incentives are considered.

The next steps Glass Futures has put forward a multimillion-pound bid for a multi-partner Phase 3 study. The study led by Glass Futures with Glass Technology Services, partners with glass manufacturers Encirc, Guardian Glass, NSG Group and Dartington Crystal, furnace designers Tecoglas and FIC UK, equipment suppliers Ametek and Siemens as well as research groups – University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University, University of Leeds, British Glass and The Society for Glass Technology.

If awarded, the Phase 3 study plans to undertake a series of technical demonstrators, computer modelling and economic studies into the low-carbon fuel scenarios investigated in Phase 2.

Phase 3 intends to benchmark biodiesel 100% derived from renewable sources against standard diesel and natural gas at a lab-scale at the University of Sheffield, a small industrial scale pot furnace at Dartington Crystal and a large industrial scale container furnace at Encirc and float glass furnaces at NSG and Guardian.

Lower-cost bio-oils that are, for example, derived from pyrolysis of waste streams are also intended to be investigated at lab-scale and on a small industrial scale furnace at Dartington Crystal.

Phase 3 proposes to explore hydrogen combustion parameters at lab-scale at DNV-GL and CelSian to identify routes to optimise emissivity and heat transfer before being trialled in glass melting studies at lab-scale at The University of Sheffield; if these studies are successful, Dartington Crystal has agreed to upgrade a small (150kg) industrial furnace to run

on hydrogen and undertake larger-scale glass melting trials.

Alongside the small-scale melting trials, furnace modelling, health and safety and site engineering studies are planned in parallel to assess how these findings from the hydrogen trials might be upscaled onto an industrial furnace.

Initial site research undertaken during Phase 2 identified the need to increase power supply to enable large-scale electric melting. Phase 3 plans to explore the potential for upgrading electrical supply at UK glass manufacturing sites, alongside modelling of large-scale electric furnaces.

The Phase 2 economic study is planned to be enhanced so each UK glass manufacturing site will be able to use the economic model to understand which fuel scenarios are most suited to their operations. While not the focus of the project, the compatibility of CCUS technologies with the different fuel scenarios will also be investigated during the phase 3 project.

If the bid for Industrial Fuel Switching demonstration funds is successful, these technologies will be trialled at a range of scales to access the technical feasibility to melt a range of glass compositions and the potential impact on emissions.

Routes to balance the use of multiple fuel-streams to take advantage of flexible pricing and mitigate against the risk of disruption to fuel supplies will be drawn together following findings from the other three trial fuel-streams and initial findings from Phase 2.

Conclusion This study has identified four low-carbon fuel technologies - biofuels, hydrogen, large-scale electric melting and flexible hybrid - that have potential to decarbonise the glass melting process, removing up to 1.2Mt CO2 emissions per year by 2030, totalling more than 20Mt by 2050.

The project also intends to develop research infrastructure and expertise in the UK and global glass supply chain that can support and drive rapid implementation of low-carbon fuel technologies within the UK beyond the initial project scope – creating new jobs and leveraging international research and development investment. �

*R&D Programme Manager, Glass Technology Services and project manager for the Glass Futures Industrial Fuel Switching project. www.glass-futures.org/

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Data – the deciding factor

Events review: Phoenix banquet

� Phoenix award winner Prof Alicia Duran.

Prof Alicia Duran accepts Phoenix award 30 0 Glass International November 2019

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Events review: Phoenix banquet

“I am close to the end of my career but I still have two main goals to achieve before retirement. These are the ICG 2030 project and the

”

International Year of Glass 2022.

�� Phoenix Chairman Jean-Luc Logel presents the

P This year’s Phoenix award Glass Person of the Year winner, Prof Alicia Duran, spoke how industry collaboration is key to the glass sector’s continued development.

Continued>>

rof Alicia Duran, of the Institute of Ceramics and Glass of the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) and President of the ICG, accepted the famous Phoenix bird sculpture during a glittering ceremony in Madrid.

She was named the Phoenix Committee’s 49th Glass Person of the Year for her services to the glass industry during her 42-year career.

In her acceptance speech she praised the Institute of Ceramics and Glass of the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) in Madrid. The institute had welcomed her when she arrived from her native Argentina after completing her degree at the University of Cordoba.

“One month before leaving, I received the offer of a PhD fellowship in Stanford but I decided to come to Spain. My

friends and professors thought I was crazy but I never regretted having made that decision,” she told the audience.

“I came from very dark times in my country and I found a workplace open and friendly and a wonderful city that walked the first steps in democracy.

Madrid is a very special city: open to everyone willing to live here; nobody feels a foreigner in Madrid. I am of SpanishArgentinian nationalities but in my heart I am a citizen of Madrid.”

She has remained at the institute ever since her arrival in Spain on October 1, 1977.

The Phoenix Committee is formed of a number of representatives from glass technology equipment suppliers.

Each year they meet to nominate a glass person of they year who they believe has

www.glass-international.com

award to Prof Duran.

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Events review: Phoenix banquet

��� The Phoenix committee with Prof Duran. Top and left, various friends and dignitaries from the glass industry at the event.

made an outstanding contribution to the industry. The banquet is attended by glass suppliers, past winners, past chairman and the winner’s invited guests. Among these was Mrs Alev Yaraman, the first female winner of the Phoenix Award in 1999.

This year’s Chairman, Jean-Luc Logel, of Iris Inspection Machines, told the various dignitaries, the committee had selected Prof Duran in recognition of her her extensive work in the furtherance of glass, glass-ceramics and sol-gel materials research.

This extends from basic research to applications in the industrial glass sector and for final users of glassy materials.

She has worked on a number of projects including Enhancing energy saving in furnaces, environmental issues and emissions control, recycling systems, and the certification of food safety of glass containers, Mr Logel said.

In her speech, Prof Duran said that

collaboration has remained a key part of her working life.

She has worked on research projects with a number of glassmakers throughout her career including Verallia, Vidrala, Vicrila, Saint-Gobain and Guardian.

“This is a clear example that it’s possible to combine collaboration within competition, between companies

and countries, between academia and industry, between glass producers and glass end-users.

“Cooperation/collaboration are key words in my life.”

She thanked those who have played a contribution in her career including Continued>>

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Events review: Phoenix banquet

�� (Left) Phoenix committe new members, above, all the women at the

her first glass teacher Prof.

Fernández Navarro; Rosa Menéndez, President of CSIC, Prof John Parker of the ICG and Glass International columnist, and Fabio Nicoletti, ‘my so loved friend in glass.’

Prof Duran is also President of the International Commission on Glass (ICG) and has promoted understanding and co-operation between glass experts in the fields of science and technology.

A goal of her presidency has been to promote more women in glassmaking.

She said: “The aim is to break the ‘glass ceiling’, understood as a limit that prevent women from advancing to top positions in companies and R&D institutions.”

Diversity increases creativity, it

increases quality and gender equality improves efficiency, she said.

She added: “I am close to the end of my career but I still have two main goals to achieve before retirement. These are the ICG 2030 project and the International Year of Glass 2022.”

The aim of the ICG 2030 project is to ensure the ICG grows in weight and relevance, representing and serving all the players in glass field.

“We have to carry forward the work of international collaboration between glass technologists and scientists of the world and also to identify future directions for research and development”, Prof Duran said.

There has been a groundswell of support to pursue a United Nations International Year of Glass for 2022, she said. Such an initiative will underline the technological, scientific and economic importance of glass. Formal

endorsements will be requested at the UN General Assembly in July 2020. If approved the kick off meeting will be in Geneva in February 2022, followed by the ICG congress in Berlin, which will coincide with the 100th anniversary of the German glass association (DGG).

If approved the year of glass will be a global event focused on glass art and history, developed alongside thousands of activities around the world.

“If we achieve these goals, the effort invested will be worth invested.

“However, I think it will be very difficult to leave the glass issues because I will never stop loving glass,” she concluded. �

Phoenix Committee, www.phoenixawardcommittee.org Institute of Ceramics and Glass, Madrid, Spain, www.icv.csic.es/en/ International Commission of Glass, www.icglass.org

www.glass-international.com

banquet joined Prof Duran.

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Environment

When ecological requirements meet economic interests Glassmakers face numerous challenges today with ecology and the environment probably the most prominent. Anne-Sophie Lelievre* explains solutions to successfully take up these challenges.

E

cology-related events often make the news headlines and this looks set to continue.

In December 2015, 196 countries adopted the Paris Agreement, aiming at limiting the increase of the global average temperature to 1.5°C. As a consequence, all categories of society need to take measures taking into account this objective: private people, companies, governments… and of course, industries!

The glass sector is no exception.

Glass, an opportunity for the future Glass is considered as a robust and sustainable material and is taking advantage of the bad reputation currently experienced by single-use plastic.

Although glass faces a promising future as it can be reused and recycled, the glass industry has to find a way to make its production process cleaner and to

drastically reduce its carbon footprint.

Now is a good time for glassmakers to consider this.

Glassmakers are not alone to find the best solutions to face this challenge.

Vertech’, as a software provider to the glass industry, accompanies them by offering modern and innovative solutions.

Investing in the renovation of premises or in new machines could be one solution; but this costly measure wouldn’t be enough. The whole process must be daily controlled, in terms of energy consumption for example, to provide glassmakers with all the keys to make suitable decisions.

High stakes on raw materials Optimising cullet is of big interest from both ecological and economic points of view. Using cullet to produce new articles implies a much smaller use of raw materials, particularly sand. For

glassmakers, sand constitutes a real problem, economically and ecologically.

Raw materials need to be paid for and transported to the plant. But most importantly, like any other resource on Earth, sand is not unlimited and is becoming rare. Several types of sand are not suitable for glass production; for example, sand from deserts is deemed too regular. Therefore sand must be extracted implying heavy ecological consequences: destruction of ecosystems, shore erosion, or even sometimes desalination.

By using more cullet, all these problems can be reduced. Likewise, using some materials such as soda and lime reduces the fusion temperature, which is of high interest regarding energy consumption.

All in all, controlling composition and raw materials is extremely important. SIL provides all the KPIs to do so.

Continued>>

� Fig 1. Mock up of a container glass plant.

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Environment

� Fig 2. A manager can view what the energy consumption or the GES emissions are for the whole group.

the result in percentage on a specific timeframe (one hour, one shift, one day etc.). OEE is the product of the following three factors: machine performance, machine availability and product quality level.

Deep analysis

� Fig 3. (Right) Overall Equipment Effectiveness.

Energy consumption In a glass plant, different kinds of utilities are used: electricity, gas, water and air.

First of all, glass is warmed at a high temperature in the furnace; once the article is produced, glass is warmed one more time before being progressively cooled. As a consequence, a substantial amount of greenhouse gas is ejected, particularly through fumes, which makes glass production a polluting activity.

On the path to reduce the footprint of glassmakers, the first step consists in measuring, thus controlling, energy consumption. This step is absolutely essential to carry out an effective energy policy. Vertech’ developed SIL4.0 to this end, to meet glassmakers’ needs.

What’s SIL4.0?

Collecting data and displaying real-time KPIs is one of the properties of SIL4.0. The concept is quite simple: SIL is able to get information at any place where sensors can be connected.

SIL communicates with machines and sensors through any communication protocol available on the market such as Webservices, Profibus and OPC-UA to help glassmakers develop their own protocol.

As a software company, Vertech’ develops new protocols or functionalities whenever it is necessary. Regarding energy consumption, SIL4.0 is connected to key spots in the plant such as the furnace, where it can get real-time temperature; to the electro-filter, where it can get real-time green-house gas emissions;

to the annealing lehr, where it can get realtime temperature curve throughout the lehr. All the places on the production line where SIL4.0 is able to be connected are reported on (Fig 1).

SIL collects data; glassmakers choose what KPIs they wish to display, in order to help them take concrete actions.

KPIs can be consulted on totally customisable dashboards: information can be selected and sorted according to each user’s needs.

For top managers, a multi-plants dashboard may be configured, giving them the opportunity to have the same information for each plant on one single screen, which makes comparisons, benchmarking and analyses much easier and faster. In a few seconds, a top manager can view what the energy consumption or the GES emissions are for the whole group (Fig 2).

Advanced KPI – Overall Equipment Effectiveness A great quantity of KPIs is available in SIL; among them, there is the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) (Fig 3).

It is extremely important for quantifying and analysing losses and outputs. The less losses glassmakers have, the more energy-efficient they are; the more outputs they have, the better the productivity is.

SIL gets the necessary data and makes the calculation, before displaying

SIL also includes indicators related to statistical process control, such as the Gaussian curve. At a glance, glassmakers can see deviations from a standard value allowing them to anticipate on measures to be taken for continuous improvement of the production process.

To go into further details, data can be extracted and handled as glassmakers wish. In the form of pivot grids, datasheets, grouped, timeline or stock charts… Everything is possible with SIL! All these possibilities are key tools for managers to debrief on past actions and make appropriate decisions.

Energy consumption awareness With all these KPIs, glassmakers will have an overview of their energy consumption.

By knowing exactly the quantity of greenhouse gases they reject, glassmakers will be able to control their consumption by making decisions to reduce their carbon footprint and following the evolution. They will also have consistent KPIs to take part in a decarbonisation programme in order to compensate for their GES emissions.

A beginning…

Faced with these ecological challenges, glassmakers need to consider technologies and Industry 4.0 as excellent opportunities.

Monitoring Key Performance Indicators has become absolutely essential for glassmakers: first of all, so that they are aware of their energy consumption; secondly so that they have consistent data for analysis and decisionmaking. Vertech’ aims to go further and is currently working on finding correlations in order to predict the future.

Innovation has no limits and is the key to success for glassmakers. �

*Marketing and Communication Manager, Vertech’, Chalon-sur-Saône, France www.vertech.eu

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• Glass Melting Furnaces • Batch Plants • Engineering • Project Management • Turnkey Projects • Lehrs

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Environment

With a major focus on sustainability and technological advances, electric melting is accepted as a way to reduce carbon emissions. Andy Reynolds* discusses the advantages of Cold-Top Vertical Melting.

Fig 1 Stable batch layer in large CTVM exhibiting uniform nature.

E

lectric glass melting is inherently energy efficient and environmentally clean. It is often perceived however that such advantages come at the expense of furnace life and operational flexibility (compared to fuel-fired furnaces).

As a supplier of electric melting technology, Fives is at the forefront of development to improve furnace performance through practical application and modelling-based research. Continuing enhancement of the technology to further benefit melting efficiency, longer life and flexibility will strengthen the incentive for producers to make the necessary step change away from combustion-based systems on which the majority of larger container production facilities are currently centred.

Fives also strive to deliver the message that: shorter campaigns, with quicker and cheaper rebuilds, can be an advantage in a world where the future environmental and market requirements are difficult to predict.

Why Electric Melting?

The glass industry’s focus today is on sustainability and the environmental impact of our operations. When it comes to glass manufacture, the big question is how to reduce the carbon footprint of hot-end processes. Understandably, interest is growing in the potential benefits of an increased use of electricity for melting. Electric furnaces offer the prospect of low emissions, zero CO2 (from combustion) and energy efficiencies

that surpass by-far furnace technologies based principally on combustive heating.

Despite this, wider application to largescale container glass production has been largely disadvantaged by fuel economics.

However, the world is changing, the argument against electricity on grounds of operational costs is not as clear-cut as it once was. Availability of renewable energy (often helped a little by nuclear power) has reduced the carbon cost of producing electricity in many regions.

Predicted changes in carbon tariffs, both level and method of implementation, bring into question the merits of basing any future furnace investment on fossilfuel. And, in any case, the move towards CO2 neutral production will be not only be driven by legislation but by consumer demand for greener products.

Cold-Top Vertical Melting Technology Electric furnaces based on cold-top vertical melting (CTVM) technology are successfully applied to most types of glass and are often the preferred solution for glasses where evaporation of volatile constituents is reduced by eliminating free-melt surface.

Fives Prium CTVM furnaces are generally single-chamber, the entire melt surface being covered by a batch layer.

New batch is added to the top surface as the underside passes into to melted state; with correct design, the batch cover will uniform and of stable thickness with low radiative loses. Heat flux can be

below 2.0kW/m2 (depending on batch composition).

The superstructure, above the batch layer, is relatively cool (<100°C); there are no waste gas heat losses from combustion and no need for heat recovery or flue structures, the only hot structure being the glass tank itself. The total heat loss of the furnace (i.e. all energy not contributing to the actual melting process) is low and the technology achieves favourable energy consumption per tonne of glass melted (2.7GJ/tonne at 300 tonnes/day).

As the term ‘vertical melting’ implies, the melting processes occurring in the furnace chamber, i.e. the liquidation/ reaction of raw materials, fining (degassing) and refining (re-absorption of gas bubbles) in the melt, can be considered as being separated in the vertical sense from top (batch) to bottom (throat).

The temperature profile, heat release, and convective currents of the glass within the melt chamber, are strongly dependent on maintaining the nature, thickness, and insulating effective of the batch layer (Fig 1 Image above).

Whereas in a ‘conventional’ fuel-fired furnace changes in the extent of batch coverage can be largely accommodated by control adjustments, in the CTVM furnace 100% stable batch cover must be maintained continuously. Understanding the melting processes within the batch layer, and in particular, the impact of thermal and convective forces on the Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

All-electric melting for container glass

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Environment

� Fig 2 Analysis of the batch melting processes from the underside.

melting processes at different locations across the surface is paramount in optimising the size and geometry of the melting chamber (Fig. 2).

Furnace Size & Melt Rates The melt area of the CTVM furnace is determined principally by the required production capacity, the specific melt rate (rate of material transfer through the batch layer) being dependent on composition including cullet content.

Fixing the optimum area requires proper consideration of the required production capacities. Importantly, the melt area must be set to allow the required range of production capacities to be achieved within operational temperatures that are not detrimental to furnace life. This in turn requires that the time-temperature dependent melt processes and their segregation in the melting chamber are optimised through correct geometry and electrode positioning.

Today, Fives target 8-10 years CTVM furnace life for standard container quality soda-lime glasses. Such campaigns are only achievable by operating the furnace in a ‘low stress’ condition i.e. with modest melt rates of between 1.6 and 2.2 T/m2/ day (in terms of glass output). These would be considered as low with respect to fuel-fired furnace types.

Campaign Life vs Efficiency Even with the larger melt areas imposed by applying ‘low stress’ melt rates, CTVM furnaces are still energy efficient, so much so that we can afford to off-set some of this efficiency by extensive cooling of the refractory structure in order to improve life.

CFD modelling programmes, validated against empirical data, allows us to predict glass refractory interface temperatures and shear forces which together can be used to determine a ‘wear index’ – a parameter which gives a relative indication of the critical regions of the

furnace and where attention in respect to corrosion should be focused (Fig. 3).

The application of a cooling system that can be adapted to cool selected regions precisely allows wear to controlled as the campaign progresses – although proper review and management is required.

Equally such analysis shows us the regions where corrosion forces are less and where we can apply higher insulation levels without adversely wear rate.

With the application of sufficient cooling, critical areas of the structure can be managed in terms of wear almost indefinitely, although overall efficiency will be reduced. The CTVM process is however obliged to use a throat (rather than waist) type connection to the forehearth system.

In reality the throat is the area most vulnerable to wear and the throat condition will often define the end of serviceable life for the furnace.

Improving throat life is currently limited to (air and/or water) cooling, though other options include molybdenum coating of the high wear points as identified by CFD modelling.

Shorter Campaigns – Why not?

A CTVM furnace can normally be rebuilt (as is) within a 30-35 days glass-toglass time window. Full repair requires only the replacement of substructure tank refractory material and electrode equipment.

Superstructures can be left intact for multiple campaigns.

Rebuild costs are therefore relatively low compared to a standard end-fired tank.

Importantly, rebuilds provide an opportunity to enlarge and/or adapt the furnace design. Indeed, it is common for our clients to install infrastructures (power, control, etc.) for a larger tank in anticipation of future expansion. Even steelwork can be designed to anticipate expansion with minimal modification.

We therefore advocate the philosophy that campaigns of electric furnaces should not be considered as a simple disadvantage or directly compared to those of fuel-fired alternatives, indeed, shorter lives should be viewed as an opportunity.

variations of the CTVM. It must be noted that quite significant output ranges (50-110% of design load) can be accommodated with correct operational management including adjustment of cullet ratio and/or draining (and recycling) of glass.

Reduced glass compositions (standard amber for example) can be difficult to melt in a cold-top furnace due to the nature of the batch layer (principally gas entrapment leading to non-uniform venting and hot spots). This difficulty is reduced by increased cullet ratios and relatively low melt rates.

Fives recognises that in some cases requirement in load flexibility or compositional factors will prevent the application of CTVM technology; we therefore also invest in developing other parallel hybrid technologies utilising a portion of fuel-fired energy input. The Fives Prium Ecoflex Hybrid is essentially an-electric furnace where the refining chamber is moved to the side of the melting tank and heated by a very small combustion input.

Application of Patented HRA technology achieves high energy efficiency by directing the waste gas from combustion over the batch layer.

A one solution fits all” CTVM technology is not a one solution fits all, however there is no doubt that furnaces based on this design philosophy will have a place in the melting of container glass in the future alongside others. Where output and compositions are reasonably stable and oxidised glasses being produced, electric melting offers energy efficiencies and zero combustive emissions that no other technology can currently match. And, importantly, this technology is available today. �

*Business Development Director Fives Glass, Paris, France www.fivesgroup.com � FFig 3 Relative ‘wear index’ represented in CFD model of CTVM furnace.

CTVM Limitations and the Alternatives The range of sustainable melt-rates imposes limitations on the allowable load

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Environment

A software to improve furnace energy efficiency Oscar Verheijen* highlights how software and industrial measurements can enable improved energy efficiency of glass furnaces.

F

10000

ďż˝ Fig 1.

Benchmark ranking graph.

Actual energy consumption, 50% cullet MJ/ton

or more than 15 years, glass manufacturers have had the opportunity to benchmark their furnace(s) on energy consumption using CelSianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s well-known furnace benchmarking tool.

This web-based tool contains energy consumption data of more than 500 furnaces around the world.

With benchmarking, the energy consumption per molten tonne glass for (a) specific furnace(s) is compared with the figures of glass furnaces producing the same glass type. This enables the determination of the energy savings potential of the evaluated furnace(s).

The graphical presentation of benchmark results allows easy identification whether a furnace is ranked close to the best-performing furnace or positioned between furnaces consuming relative high amounts of energy.

Obviously, there are several reasons that can explain the observed differences in energy consumption.

These reasons include, among others, differences in furnace type, fuel and oxidant type, glass colour, and furnace age. The presence of these data in the benchmark database enables a more detailed comparison. Generally, benchmarking of all in-company furnaces is the starting point for definition of bestpractices (Fig 1).

Discussion of benchmark results with the relevant furnace people enhances the exchange of operational experience. The insights generated and (energy saving) actions as a result of these discussions pay for itself.

Comparison of internal energy consumption data with external data provided by the benchmark defines the potential operational cost savings when state-of-the-art furnace technology is implemented at the own furnace fleet.

9000 8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

Ranking

ďż˝ Fig 2. Furnace heatmap pictures

Energy balance measurements Industrial energy balance measurements at glass furnaces help to further understand the reasons for the calculated energy consumption data. During the on-site audit, measurement engineers measure outer- and inner wall refractory temperatures, flue gas flows, temperatures and composition, flow (and temperatures) of cooling water and air and so on.

Including IR-images on (critical) furnace parts, this audit provides a complete overview of the state of the furnace: a detailed energy balance including regenerator efficiency, local

heat losses, rate of infiltration air, etc.

In addition critical parts (hot-spots, cold-spots, poorly sealed and insulated areas) are highlighted and concrete improvement recommendations are given. These industrial measurement sessions have shown to be highly valuable for glass companies to optimise their maintenance schemes, and activities enabling a reduction in energy consumption and limiting the aging effect of energy consumption.

Continued>>

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Environment

Energy savings Energy savings can be realised by means of various measures including improved sealing and insulation, near-stoichiometric combustion, control of water content of batch and cullet, and improving regenerator and combustion efficiency.

Quantification of these measures in view of savings requires a so-called energy balance simulation. CelSianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in-house developed EBM (Energy Balance Model) software is used for this type of analysis. As first step, a reference EBM is made for the glass furnace under investigation.

This reference EBM requires information on the furnace design, refractory data, process settings, and glass batch composition. The reference EBM is calibrated using the results of the industrial measurement session providing local heat flux data, air infiltration rate and regenerator performance (Fig 2).

The calibrated EBM can be regarded as a copy of the real furnace.

Now, the impact of energy savings measures on energy consumption can easily be quantified by performing what-if simulations such as for example simulating the effect of improved insulation and/or sealing, dried cullet, and near-stoichiometric combustion. Combining this detailed understanding of the furnace with a well-founded discussion of possible negative side-effects of applying these measures will lead to concrete suggestions to improve on glass furnace energy consumption.

By providing quantitative data on cost savings applying the various measures, EBM can also be used to build business cases for hardware investments required for energy savings (Fig 3).

EBM simulations only need a few minutes calculation time and therefore this software is a powerful decision support tool for glass furnace operators.

For larger firms with multiple furnaces around the world EBM is often used as a standard, it helps to use one type of calculations and language to discuss energy efficiency measures for furnaces in different locations.

Typically the combination of software, measurements and the operational expertise of a plant lead to 2-6% energy savings.

That in itself means a return on investment within months based on the energy savings achieved.

*

*CelSian Glass & Solar, Eindhoven, The Netherlands oscar.verheijen@celsian.nl www.celsian.nl

Crown 0.05 kWh/kg

Reaction + Evap 0.13 kWh/kg

Boosting 0.17 kWh/kg Batch 0.01 kWh/kg Input Toal 1.15 kWh/kg

Melter Wall 0.05 kWh/kg Glass 0.44 kWh/kg Output Total 1.15 kWh/kg

ďż˝ Fig 3. Login screen online benchmarking tool.

www.glass-international.com

Flue Gas 0.42 kWh/kg

Fuel + Oxygen 0.97 kWh/kg * latest swabbing-robot installed in July 2017 in Germany

Comb. Wall 0.05 kWh/kg

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Environment

Oscillation combustion technology to reduce NOx and CO2 emissions Taiyo Nippon Sanso has developed two new oscillation combustion technologies to maximise the NOx and CO2 emission reduction effects by using advanced oxy-fuel combustion technology. Yoshiyuki Hagihara* reports.

E

nvironmental issues and global warming has become one of the most important topics of recent years. Burning fossil fuels, which releases CO2, has a serious global warming effect.

The development of more energy-saving technology has been desired. Oxygen combustion technology contributes to energy-saving, CO2 and NOx emission reduction, so it has been applied to a variety of combustion applications. Taiyo Nippon Sanso has recently developed new oxy-fuel and burners that combines oxy-fuel combustion and oscillation combustion to achieve a reduction in NOx and CO2 emissions.

Method of Change Combustion This technology is a method of Periodically Changing the Combustion State of the burner (PCCS).

The combination of this technology with classical Oxy-fuel combustion

technology reduces NOx emissions and maximises the energy-saving effect of Oxy-fuel combustion.

The principle of this method is shown in Fig. 1(a). This chart shows the relationship between oxygen concentration in oxidant and the NO equilibrium concentration at a different oxygen ratio.

Conventional periodical combustion methods swing flow rate of one or both of fuel or oxidant, so the oxygen ratio is periodically switched as shown by arrow A. Once the oxygen concentration has been fixed, thick fuel combustion and thin fuel combustion is alternatively switched which results in average NOx reduction down to dash line a.

This new PCCS method varies oxygen concentration and oxygen ratio swings as shown as arrow B. As a result of this periodically switching state between high oxygen concentration with a low oxygen

ratio state and low oxygen concentration with high oxygen ratio state make possible to reduce NOx emission to the level of dash line b. Well below the conventional periodical combustion methods.

The fluctuation pattern of oxygen concentration in oxidant, oxygen ratio, and accompanying NO emissions is shown in Fig. 1(b) for conventional PCCS and for the new PCCS method called Innova-Jet. Innova-Jetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s operating conditions are: oxygen concentration is periodically switched at a range of 33% to 100% (average is 40%), and oxygen ratio is also periodically switched 0.6 to 1.4 (average is 1.0). NO concentration pattern, shown as C in Fig. 1(b), is calculated using equilibrium computation.

Continued>>

2.0 1.8

Oxygen ratio 1.4

1.6 1.4

Oxygen ratio 1.0

NO

1.2 1.0

a

0.8 B: Innova-Jet

0.6 0.4

b

A: Conventional

0.2

Oxygen ratio 0.6

0 20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Oxygen concentration in oxidant (%) NO: NO emission at oscillated comb./NO emission no oscilllated comb.

100

1a

1b

ďż˝ Fig 1. (a) Relationship between oxygen concentration in oxidant and NO equilibrium at different oxygen ratio; (b) Fluctuation pattern of oxygen content in oxidant, oxygen ratio, and accompanying NO emission.

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Environment

2a

2b

� Fig 2. (a) Schematic image of self-induced oscillation nozzle.; (b) Shape of flame “Innova-Jet Swing”.

3a

3b

� Fig 3. (a) Emission characteristics of NOx at steady combustion and Innova-Jet; (b) Heat transfer distribution of steady combustion and Innova-Jet.

Self-induced oscillation combustion This Innova-Jet technology combines a self-induced oscillation phenomenon with oxy-fuel combustion to swing the flame.

Self-induced oscillation is a phenomenon in which gas jet periodically alternate its direction by itself. Combining this phenomenon with oxy-fuel combustion, it is possible to uniformly heat a wide area. Fig. 2 is a schematic image of a nozzle which generates self-induced oscillation effect and how self-induced oscillation occurs.

This ‘self-induced oscillating nozzle’ consists of some typical units as, control

port, connecting tube, and throat. When the main gas jet blows out from the fuel nozzle, it is attached on one side of the throat wall. This attachment is caused by the Coanda Effect, a well-known phenomena in fluid dynamics, which is the tendency of a fluid jet to stay attached to a convex surface. At this moment, a pressure difference arises at both sides of the control port (at pressure sampling point (A) and (B), Fig. 2), which results in occurring sub gas flow in the connecting tube. This sub gas flow works cancelling Coanda Effect, so the main gas flow is detached from the throat wall, and immediately attached to another side of throat wall. By repeating these series of phenomena, self-induced oscillation occurs. The blowing direction of the main gas jet depends on the throat wall it is adhering, so we recognise the direction of main gas jet changing periodically.

Innova-Jet Swing technology does not use any mechanical moving parts at the self-induced oscillating nozzle, what provide to the system with one excellent robustness.

Innova-Jet Innova-Jet is a low-NOx oxygen-enriched burner that combines PCCS method and oxy-fuel combustion to reduce NOx emissions.

NOx emission and heat transfer characteristics from Innova-Jet were evaluated in a test furnace.

The result is showed in Fig. 3. The combustion conditions are: CH4 as fuel, oxygen concentration 40%, oxygen ratio is 1.05.

As shown in Fig. 3, Innova-Jet technology reduces NOx emissions by about 1/20 compared to steady combustion. Heat transfer is also improved by about 10%.

This application is effective in a 12001300°C combustion furnace, and can be expected for energy-saving and reduce CO2 emissions in a refiner for glass manufacturing processes.

Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

Dash line D shows NO concentration at oxygen concentration: 40% and oxygen ratio: 1.0. Solid line E shows average of NO concentration in periodical combustion. Shown as Fig. 1(b), this method effectively reduces NO emission by getting down oxygen concentration at high oxygen ratio state, even as the state is generally easy to generate NOx.

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Environment

Burner

Moving 120mm = (10x12) 12mm

ut

10mm

500mm

o ter Wa (T ou)t

m

0m

150 Water in (Tin)

1240mm

Water cooled pipes

4a

4b

�Fig 4. Schematic drawing of test facility for evaluating convection heat transfer. (a outview) (B water cooled pipes).

�Fig 5. Heat transfer distribution.

� Fig 6. Comparison of NOx emission between conventional burner and Innova-Jet Swing.

Innova-Jet Swing and Innova- Jet F.H. Combining the self-induced oscillation phenomenon with oxy-fuel combustion, we have developed Innova-Jet Swing and Innova-Jet F.H. We evaluated convection the heat transfer by using the facility shown in Fig. 4. Water cooled pipes are installed on the bottom, a flame is ejected vertically downward from the top, and the heat transfer is estimated from the temperature difference between the inlet temperature Tin and outlet temperature Tout. Heat transfer is calculated using the following equation: Qi = mCp(Tout - Tin) .

(1)

Here, m is mass flowrate and Cp is specific heat. The integral value along the flow direction of the cooling water is measured. In this test, a conventional pipe in pipe type burner and Innova-Jet Swing are used for comparative evaluation. The fuel was set to 8 Nm3/h of LPG due to the limitation of facility scale. Oxygen concentration in the oxidizer is 40% and oxygen ratio is 1.05.

Heat transfer distributions are shown in Fig. 5. The horizontal axis shows the distance from the burner central axis and is the direction of oscillation in case of Innova-Jet Swing. In case of conventional pipe in pipe type burner, it can be seen that the heat flux is maximised directly under the burner. On the other hand, the heat flux by Innova-Jet Swing is widely distributed although the maximum value is small. The total heat transfer in the measurement area is 37.2kW for the pipe in pipe type and 37.4kW for Innova-Jet Swing, and the ratio to the heat input 220kW calculated from the calorific value of the LPG is 16.9% and 17.0%, respectively.

We evaluated the NOx emission by using a test furnace shown in Fig. 6.

This result indicates that Innova-Jet Swing contributes to a reduction in NOx emissions. This result is considered to be self-induced oscillation combustion can obtain the same effect as staging combustion.

Such an effect of Innova-Jet Swing is effective for oxygen enriched and oxy-fuel burner for melter of glass furnace. When introducing oxy-fuel in a glass furnace, a

long, wide heating area and low NOx oxyfuel burner is required. In such a situation, Innova-Jet Swing achieves energy saving and NOx emission reduction.

In the manufacturing process of bottle and fiber glass, a forehearth is installed after the melting furnace. A forehearth consumes about 10% of the fuel in the glass melting process. However, in this process, unlike the melting furnace, waste heat in not used, so the thermal efficiency is poor.

Furthermore, since a forehearth is a tunnel-like narrow space, it is necessary to arrange many burners to keep the temperature of the molten glass uniform.

For this application, we have developed oxygen burner Innova-Jet F.H. using selfinduced oscillation combustion.

In order to evaluate Innova-Jet F.H., we built a test furnace that simulated forehearth and measured the temperature distribution and heat transfer efficiency.

(Fig. 7) Using 12 air burners and four InnovaJet F.H., the furnace temperature and fuel consumption were evaluated. At Continued>>

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Environment

1300

Temperature [C°]

Lx = 0 1200

Innova-Jet F.H.

1100

1000

Air burner

900 -500 -400 -300 -200 -100

0

100

200

300 400

500

Ly [mm]

� Fig 7. Schematic drawing of test furnace for Innova-Jet F.H.

� Fig 8. Comparison of furnace temperature distribution between air burner and Innova-Jet F.H. this time, the fuel flow rate of each burner was adjusted so that the exhaust gas temperature was 1150°C. As a result, it was confirmed that the temperature distribution in the furnace on the Lx=0 plane became uniform when Innova-Jet F.H. was used rather than the air burner.

(Fig. 8) The fuel flow rate of the air burner was NG:13Nm3/h, whereas the InnovaJet F.H. was NG:4.7 Nm3/h, confirming a reduction of about 65%.

Taiyo Nippon Sanso expect that using Innova-Jet F.H. will reduce fuel and CO2 emission in the forehearth.

Conclusion The Innova-Jet series oscillation combustion technology has been used in the steel manufacturing process and has proven to be effective in reducing NOx and CO2 emission. In the future, applying to various glass melting processes will contribute to reducing CO2 and NOx emissions in glass manufacturing. �

(2011), 1.

[2] Yoshiyuki Hagihara, Tomoyuki Haneji, Yasuyuki Yamamoto, Kimio Iino : Enery Procedia No.120 (2017), 187.

[3] Masashi Yamagushi, Takeshi Saito, Yasuyuki Yamamoto, Yoshiyuki Hagihara : Journal of Thermal Science and Engineering Application, Vol.11 (2019), 051022-1.

References [1] Tomoyuki Haneji, Kimio Iino, Yoshiyuki Hagihara, Yasuyuki Yamamoto: Taiyo Nippon Sanso enginieering report, No.30

*Taiyo Nippon Sanso Co, Tokyo, Japan www.tn-sanso.co.jp/en/

25-26 FEBRUARY

Seoul, South Korea

GLASSMAN ASIA IS HEADING TO KOREA Glassman events are where the hollow glass industry does

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Glass International November 2019

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Inspection

The retrofit option for inspection Obsolete inspection equipment can be upgraded to the latest certification and safety levels without the need for new acquisitions.

The retrofitting of existing machines is often a good alternative to buying new kit. Heye International offers several retrofit packages to match customer needs.

S

afety is a paramount concern for everyone. And when it comes to end users consuming food and beverages from glass containers, the requirement for maximum safety is mandatory. In times of growing awareness for sustainable materials, glass is becoming increasingly popular. To meet consumer expectations, ultimately glass packaging has to maintain its reputation for being environmentallyfriendly and ‘safe’. Furthermore, safety and quality are what glass manufacturers demand from their inspection lines at the cold end. Reliable inspection machines and technologies deliver the standard in many glass plants.

Retrofit solutions for every budget To maintain or upgrade standards, the modernisation of inspection equipment is necessary from time to time. However, the retrofitting of existing equipment represents an economic alternative to buying a new machine. Existing inspection modules and tooling can often be used further, while the machine control unit is replaced by the latest control system, combining unbeatable reliability with ease of use.

Glassmakers can select from different refurbishment packages according to their specific requirements and budget.

This can include a straightforward surface overhaul of the frame, base plate, mechanical parts etc as the basic package. An upgrade of employee safety and HACCP is achieved by the inclusion of housing and door solutions. The next level range of services comprises a simple mechanical refurbishment, as well as an electrical and electronic overhaul or a combination of different packages.

Benefits Without having to invest in new equipment, the glassmaker takes delivery of a properly overhauled and updated inspection machine. The positive result is evident: Increased safety, quality and productivity.

A new machine control unit makes inspection work more flexible, as job change times are reduced and spare parts availability is guaranteed for at least 10 years. Heye delivers original spare parts only, with no reproductions provided.

Thus, the glassmaker benefits from a sustainable spare parts condition, which similarly guarantees delivery reliability on its part.

Sophisticated retrofitting measures reduce mechanical maintenance work and downtime. The inspection machine works reliably, while no time is lost to breakdowns due to obsolete components,

electronics or control units. Servo components, inline, etc let the inspection modules work precisely and accurately.

According to the current wave of digital industrialisation, remote maintenance via Ethernet is possible with the appropriate retrofit package.

Heye’s team of experts can provide advice and consultation with respect to appropriate retrofit work. This can vary significantly, depending on the current status of the inspection equipment and relevant market requirements. Located in Nienburg, Germany, Heye’s Cold End specialists have comprehensive experience with many variants of starwheel machines and ensure the correct implementation of work undertaken. All inspection modules are prepared according to the glassmaker’s needs (e.g. wall thickness measurement).

After a start-up check, the retrofitted machine can easily be commissioned in the cold end area by plug-and-play installation. �

Petra Heumann, Heye International, Obernkirchen, Germany.

Telephone: +49 (0)5724 26-0.

Email: marketing@heye-international.com Web: www.heye-international.com

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Events review: Glass Appreciation

Achieving an appreciation of glass Glass Technology Services* (GTS) and British Glass provide a training course for those new to the glass industry. Glass International’s George Lewis took part in its latest course.

O

�The course was aimed at newcomers to the glass industry.

included how the chemical reaction can be altered to create differing glass.

Mr Marshall then explained to the class how glass bottles are made.

He showed us the original hand blowing method to the press & blow and blow & blow process commonly used today on a much wider scale.

Mr Marshall then proceeded to explain the different ways glass cullet is melted.

This could be by the most common way via the use of a glass furnace that uses gases to melt the cullet, to electric furnace methods, which is less commonly used but better for the environment as less greenhouse gas is produced.

Electric furnaces aren’t currently able to reach high enough temperatures to melt high batches of glass cullet.

But with carbon emission reduction the focus of many in the industry, finding alternative ways of melting large amounts of glass is something that is being investigated extensively.

Mr Marshall then described the way glass is made, from how it starts out as

raw materials to the mixing and melting stage of the process and how the mix can be altered to create different formulations before explaining the annealing stage of glass creation.

Following a short break, we were introduced to Oliver Wallwork and Daniel Capon. Mr Wallwork works as a Product Performance Technologist while Mr Capon works as the Technical Manager, both for GTS. As part of his role, Mr Wallwork works with many companies, who send in glass to be thoroughly tested for defects and the strength of glass.

He advised the group that defects in the glass can arise from various things, such as inclusions such as stones or bubbles in the glass causing the strength of glass to be affected.

His job is to find out what is causing the problem, and briefs clients on how to stop this from happening in the future.

Mr Capon then explained glass from Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

n an autumnal September day in Chapeltown near Sheffield, UK, I was lucky enough to be invited to take part in a one-day course that is perfect for new people such as me who are starting off in the glass industry.

I was joined by industry newbies from raw material specialist Calumite, British Glass and Glass Technology Services (GTS) to partake in a brief but complete overview of glass, from its beginnings as the oldest man-made material dating back to 7000 BC to how glass is made, along with a tour of GTS’s laboratories and how they help glass manufacturers create the perfect glass for use in all kinds of everyday items including bottles and windows.

The morning session started with a presentation from Technical Director of GTS Dr Nick Kirk.

Dr Kirk gave an overview of how glass is made, followed by a brief summary of the glass sector as a whole, including flat glass, fibre glass and domestic glass manufacturers across the United Kingdom.

Principal Technologist for GTS, Martyn Marshall, then followed Dr Kirk, who explained the science behind how glass is made, from its early production in small pot furnaces to the mass production of glass that some manufacturers can now produce.

He also showed the different ways of melting the glass, from the more common furnace melting process to newer ways of melting including electric melting. This

49 Glass International November 2019

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Events review: Glass Appreciation

� Glass International’s George Lewis took part in the course.

a more scientific side and the chemical durability of glass. He also showed us how a chemical attack on glass may not always be a bad thing, as this can be used as a decorative tool to do such things as frosting glass or to stick things to the glass such as printed logos/images.

After the lunch break the group was taken on a tour of the facilities, and had the chance to be shown how glass is made and how the different chemical makeup of the glass affects how quickly and how effectively the glass can be moulded.

Following this we were also shown into where the tests are done by Mr Wallwork and his colleagues.

We then headed back to the classroom to focus on recycling of glass and the hot topic in the industry at the moment, reducing carbon emissions and the action plan set out by government.

Dr Kirk explained that glass recycling is a ‘closed loop’ meaning it can be endlessly recycled. He advised the group that while the UK is a strong recycling country, it could be doing much more.

It was highlighted that other European countries such as Sweden and Denmark recycle far more than the UK does.

Mr Marshall then finished the day long course by explaining that glass is not just used in things such as bottles

and windows, they are also used in much more. This included using glass in 3D printing to use microscopic traces of glass as part of implants, to even being used to

repair enamel in sensitive toothpaste.

As a newcomer to the industry it was of great benefit to learn the historical beginnings of glass and a thorough overview of the industry without being overloaded with information. Learning through being shown how glass is made was a great idea and something that all newcomers should be able to experience.

Having Mr Wallwork show us how he and his team go about finding defects in glass bottles was also a good way to show the group that there are many different ways a glass bottle can be tested in order for it to be seen on shelves across the world.

To improve the course for future classes, I believe that GTS should open the class out to people from other industries, to show why glass is one of, if not the best, material for reducing plastic waste due to its endless recyclability.

I would recommend this course to anyone who has just started in the glass industry and people who just want to get an idea of the history of glass or a refresher on what is new in glass, something that GTS and British Glass would be at the forefront of. �

*Glass Technology Services Chapeltown, Sheffield, UK www.glass-ts.com/

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Recycling

ďż˝ Prof Riyadh Al-Ameri.

A concrete concept for the construction industry F

inding new uses for waste products is an emerging challenge that is being faced globally â&#x20AC;&#x201C; how do we improve the way we dispose of materials that have reached the end of their life span?

According to the Australian National Waste Report of 2018, Australians generated 67 Mt of total waste in 20162017, equivalent to 2.7t per capita. Of that total, 1.1 Mt (44 kg per capita) was glass waste, with 57% being recycled.

Waste glass One of the problems with glass is that the waste sorting process tends to break glass into small pieces that contaminate paper and cardboard recycling and is not easily recoverable. Larger recycling plants now have technologies to deal with these small fractions.

But, further use for this waste glass, such as in road base, concrete, and polymer concrete production, remain underdeveloped and under-utilised in Australia and there is a significant opportunity for

expansion.

Exploring the possible use of ground glass in concrete production became a focus of new research at Deakin University, knowing the rapid growth of the construction industry and increasing use of concrete worldwide.

Deakin University used ground recycled glass as a substitute for sand to make polymer concrete, a type of concrete commonly used in the construction industry.

As the name suggests, polymer concrete uses polymers, typically resins, to replace lime-type cements as a binder to produce a high strength, water-resistant material suited to industrial flooring and infrastructure drainage, particularly in areas subject to heavy traffic such as service stations, forklift operating areas and airports.

concrete with recycled glass.

Preliminary bench testing of the concept has shown positive results that justify an optimistic view of the possibilities of this concept. Test results showed that a 20% substitution of sand with recycled glass in the polymer concrete mix would provide the best outcomes in term of compressive strength and flexural tensile strength while satisfying the requirements of the relevant international standards.

Using recycled glass has many environmental and commercial benefits and is a sustainable use of one of the major types of recyclables in the domestic waste stream. In addition, it is an opportunity to use a variety of glass types, many of which cannot currently be recycled in other ways, e.g. window glass, treated glass, drinking ware.

Natural sand In the research, Deakin replaced a proportion of natural sand in polymer

Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

Dr Riyadh Al-Ameri* headed up research that puts recycled glass into the mix to make polymer concrete.

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Recycling

Mined sand requires washing and grading before it is added to aggregate, cement and water to make concrete.

Any changes that reduce the cost of production will lead to gains across the industry, potentially on a global scale.

According to the World Economic Forum, the construction industry represents 6% of global GDP. Concrete is a major building material and sand is one of its primary components. Finding an alternative to sand makes good economic sense.

The industry’s peak representative body, Cement Concrete and Aggregates Australia (CCAA), calculates that more than 30 million m3 of pre-mixed concrete was produced across Australia in 2017, while the industry contributes more than $15 billion to the national economy every year.

Sand shortage?

Internationally, as well as in Australia, the construction industry has experienced a shortage of suitable sand.

The shortage has contributed to the rising cost of construction projects and there is little chance this trend will end soon. At the same time, there is a growing need in Australia to reuse the huge

stockpile of recycled glass (cullet), which is currently of limited use.

This research provided the evidence the construction industry needed to see the potential of glass as a substitute for sand when making polymer concrete and, potentially, concrete.

The research results showed that glass produces a stronger product that is less costly to produce.

Deakin worked with industry partner Melbourne-based Orca Civil Products, which was attracted by the sustainable nature of the project and the predicted shortages of natural, mined sands in the medium term.

Orca Construction Products is an Australian owned and operated manufacturer of polymer concrete products for drainage, electric and communication applications.

Dr Al-Ameri was contacted by several international and domestic waste handling companies and concrete/ polymer concrete producers to assess the possibility of implementing our new concept and taking the project to the next level of commercialisation.

In addition, Fisher Fine Arts Library at Pennsylvania University in the USA will keep samples of Deakin’s concrete with

LATIN AMERICA 2020

recycled plastic and polymer concrete with recycled glass in their new materials collection. It will be included in the library’s digital catalogue as a resource for researchers, martial scientists, Engineers and Designers.

The next stage of Deakin’s research will investigate the quality of the recycled glass used in the new mixture in terms of contamination rate, the moisture content and the grain shape of recycled glass, which shall be controlled to ensure high quality polymer concrete.

Deakin is also looking at substitutes for the aggregate in concrete, using alumina, fly ash, steel slag, waste plastic, waste glass, and waste paper and producing construction panels and geopolymer concrete for affordable housing.

Finding safe, sustainable and inventive ways to dispose of waste continues to be a major area of research for the team.

Deakin University will continue to investigate more opportunities to incorporate waste materials in various products for the construction industry. �

*Senior Lecturer In Civil Engineering, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia www.deakin.edu.au

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History

Prof. John Parker

Frederick Carder (Part 2).

Relationship with Turner J M Parker* and S Ellis continue their focus on Frederick Carter.

www.glass-international.com

L

ast month I wrote about Frederick Carder’s early history.

Here the emphasis is on his artistic achievements and his interactions with Professor Turner, a founding father of both the Society of Glass Technology (SGT) and the International Commission on Glass.

They probably first met in 1919, when the SGT visited the Steuben Division of the Corning Glass Works where Carder was a director. Then in 1928 Carder and his wife returned to England at the invitation of the SGT to visit the glass manufacturers of Stourbridge, including Stevens and Williams where Carder’s interest in glass had first been kindled. During their visit, Turner lectured on ‘Modern Art Glass’, with Carder no doubt in the audience.

Turner was a chemist by education and technologist by experience, but also had a well-developed appreciation of art. He had for example encouraged the SGT to set up an art committee.

Carder and Turner’s relationship was evidently close, as several pieces in his museum were given to Turner by Carder himself, some quite rare. Carder also contributed to the painting of Turner, commemorating his election to a Fellowship of the Royal Society.

Turner wrote of ‘The Art of Frederick Carder’ in the Society’s Journal in 1939.

He suggests that Carder was ‘never quite satisfied with the standard he himself has reached, however high that may be’, highlighting a common trait. Of Steuben, Turner commented that ‘this firm must be accorded a leading place among the glass manufacturers of the world.' Both Turner and Carder came from hard-working backgrounds, had worked their way up, and created their own opportunities to be successful.

Both were perfectionists and innovators, always seeking to better themselves and their work. Both contributed significantly to the UK and worldwide glass industry

and our understanding of glass (scientific and artistic). Perhaps these shared characteristics underpinned their friendship.

A particularly popular design Carder developed in 1904 was aurene, displaying a strong iridescence created using a stannous or lead chloride spray and appropriate heat treatment on a coloured substrate to give golden, blue or occasionally red, green or amber products. His inspiration was ancient Roman glass although its iridescence is not manufactured but a side effect of centuries of burial. The name was created

by Carder: aur from the Latin aurum, gold, and ene from the middle English schene meaning shine. Verre de soie came a year later. It was usually clear or milky-white coloured glass, occasionally pale green.

Its iridescent qualities caused it to look silky, hence the name meaning ‘glass of silk’. A small verre de soie piece decorated with aurene patterning and made in 1920 was given to Turner by Carder along with an unusual aurene design for an ashtray featuring a square tray with a cigarette rest in each corner.

An amethyst quartz sculptured bowl in the museum was created in the late 1920s and early 1930s, by adding amethyst powered glass; once the shape was blown the crackled effect was achieved by plunging it into cold water. Decoration was acid-etched onto the bowl, with the leaves and feet being applied ‘at the fire’. Carder noticed that pieces with ‘sculptured’ in their name sold better than pieces named as ‘etched’, and so often renamed ‘etched’ pieces as ‘sculptured’ to fetch a higher price!

The opaque red called rouge flambé was one of the most difficult colours Carder made. It was inspired by the sang de boeuf Chinese red porcelain, and the colour was achieved by adding selenium and cadmium sulphide to the glass, which

turns red as it cools. It was developed in 1916 and produced again in 1926. A rouge flambé vase was given to Turner in 1929 when he visited Steuben Glass Works on a return SGT trip to America; it is thought to be one of only a few remaining, as they cracked easily and were never sold commercially.

Intarsia was developed by Carder around 1920, after experimenting with the Swedish Graal technique. He considered it one of his greatest achievements due to technical complexities. It involves casing a thin coloured layer of patterned glass (often floral) between two clear layers.

The sample in the Turner Museum is attributed to Swedish glassmaker John Jenson under the supervision of Carder, one of few glassmakers at Steuben able to perfect this technique. Millefiori was another ancient technique Carder recreated. Manufactured from thin sections of differently coloured glass canes, a few pieces were made between 1915 and 1925.

In retirement Carder continued experimenting and at 81 (1944) was making ashtrays using the cerre perdue or lost wax process, a technology Turner describes in his 1939 article. Since the mould was destroyed each time a model was made, every piece was unique. These pieces were never sold but were given to friends such as Turner who Carder thought would appreciate the difficulty in making them. �

Bibliography Journal of the Society of Glass Technology (1939), 23, 41-43.

*Curator of the Turner Museum of Glass, The University of Sheffield, UK. www.turnermuseum.group.shef.ac.uk j.m.parker@sheffield.ac.uk

54 Glass International November 2019

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