Company profile: International Cookware
International Cookware plots latest furnace rebuild
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hile construction of a furnace rebuild at International Cookware’s glass manufacturing facility may not be for another seven months, it doesn’t mean that Johann Brunie and his team are not already busy. Preparation work on the new oven has already begun, with discussions about the schedule, modelling of how the furnace will look and, importantly, the environmental aspects of the investment. His team has already had discussions with modelling experts from Glass Service in the Czech Republic about the rebuilt furnace. The talks focused on the geometry of the new oven and ways to improve the modifications. The glassmaker has already placed refractory orders with its long tem partner, French compatriot Sefpro, ahead of the construction next year. The project has received funding from the France Relance project, a French government scheme to help boost domestic industry as it recovers from the lockdowns caused by the pandemic. Grants are
given to companies which have decarbonisation strategies and that have aims to reduce their emissions. The operation in summer 2022 will enable the glassmaker to further increase its energy efficiency and pursue its electrification aims. The integration of the rebuilt gas-oxygen/electricity combination oven will increase the electrification rate from 49% to 54%. It will save 3800MWh of power a year, or 1100 tonnes of CO2e per year. Mr Brunie, who is International Cookware’s Technical Director, said: “We were talking about the decarbonisation of furnaces nearly 25 years ago when our engineers decided to test the electrification of the furnace in 1998. So you could say we were decarbonisation pioneers. “At the time we were thought of as quite strange by focusing on environmental issues but today decarbonisation is a huge issue.” Even 16 years ago, the reduction of emissions was a theme at the site. In 2005 its engineers cut NOx emissions by switching from air gas burners
10 Glass International November 2021
Company profile cookware.indd 1
23/11/2021 14:06:08
