Sustainability: Sisecam

Creating glass for the future

Sisecam headquarters in Istanbul’s Tuzla disctrict. �

Dr Ilkay Sökmen* provides an overview of Sisecam’s recent developments in areas such as medicine, agriculture, automotive and antibacterial glassware, with a focus on sustainability.

The International Year of Glass 2022, declared by the United Nations, was launched on February 9th with the opening event held at the United Nations building in Geneva.

Sisecam was among the main sponsors of the three-day long opening event.

During the conference Dr Sökmen gave a speech in which she stated that Sisecam considers sustainability as the focal point of its activities.

The company attaches great importance to developing products, with the vision of leaving a better world to future generations in line with its Care For Next sustainability approach. Dr Sökmen also discussed products developed by Sisecam scientists.

Dr Sökmen started her speech by stressing that glass is distinguished from other materials with its complete and infinite recyclability without compromising its quality and purity.

She said: “Sisecam produces 100% recycled glassware from glass that has been used at least once, resulting in 38% reduction in CO2 emissions and 31% energy savings compared to the production using 25% cullet. A change in consumer perception was achieved in both the glass colour and appearance of this product. The Bosphorus Turquoise colour was developed with R&D studies and transferred to production. We introduced the transparent and bubblefree recycled glassware to the market (Aware Collection) for the first time.”

Dr Sökmen pointed out that glass is an ideal substrate to add many different functions to its surface without sacrificing its unique properties and explained V-Block antimicrobial coating technology: “V-Block Technology, which was developed with the aim of preventing the growth and spread of microorganisms on glassware, neutralises virus and bacteria.

“Combining the purity of glass with hygiene, V-Block puts health first without sacrificing the transparency of glass and has the feature of being the world’s first antimicrobial glassware product.

“The coating is a nanoscale, optically transparent thin film with a noniridescent appearance and holds the most effective form of copper in a matrix to reduce harmful microorganisms. The copper substance in the formulation is an ECHA registered active substance. It is applied to the hot glass surface with chemical vapour deposition technology and the surface has a nanoscale roughness that prevents microorganisms from adhering to the surface. It also does not require any light activation and is a nonleaching antimicrobial coating.”

She outlined that glass is a key element used primarily as a facade material for architecture, and has become an important insulation material in buildings, not only in terms of transparency and aesthetic appearance, but also in terms of energy savings. She emphasised that by using the modern technologies, Sisecam can offer various coated glass products with different and high optical performances, which provide effective energy savings with heat and solar control features.

“Glass has an important place in all transportation vehicles with applications such as heat and solar-controlled windshields with defrosting feature, heatable rear windows, and roof windows that can change colour with electric current and so on.

� Dr Sökmen at the IYOG Opening Ceremony at the Palace of Nations in Geneva.

* latest swabbing-robot installed in July 2017 in Germany

“Unlike these, I would like to give you an example of a different use of glass in automotive applications, which is taking over one of the markets where plastic is used.

“Sisecam has commercialised the Exterior Glass B Pillar Cover products, which are preferred as a replacement for the plastic part between the front and rear side windows of the vehicles, and thus obtains a more aesthetic product that does not fade or scratch.”

Dr Sökmen drew attention to the use of glass in two important fi elds such as agriculture and medicine. She explained Sisecam’s R&D projects in the related areas as follows: “In the fi eld of agriculture, Sisecam released patented technology on controlled glass fertiliser with its eco-friendly behaviour, rich nutrient content through a wide range of compositions, controllable dissolution rate and suitability for high scale production. In addition, in the fi eld of medicine, we have started R&D works on innovative approaches for the healing effect of glass which is used especially for the in-situ irradiation of tumours in the body.”

In her speech, she stated that glass is an indispensable component of tableware and that the most important approaches in this fi eld are about lightweight designs and strengthening. In this context, she mentioned that by developing a special glass composition and strengthening this glass with an ion shielding technology, Sisecam produces strong and dishwasher safe thin glass products which have complex shapes.

She continued her speech on the efforts at Sisecam to reduce product weight: “Sisecam attaches great importance to this issue and allocates substantial resources to realise the reduction in energy and raw materials consumption as well as the carbon footprint that the lightweight products promise.

“While making lightweight glass packaging, we start with analysis-aided design studies by using advanced tools. We see glass not only as a material suitable for R&D, but also as one the focal point of art with creative, original and usable new designs that emerge with our forming and design abilities.”

She stated Sisecam’s Design Studio prepares 500 creative designs for various brands each year using modelling techniques and transforms these designs into glass art with automatic and handmade productions.

Sisecam has also implemented the 7Cbasalia bio-cycle technology to create a green and circular economy, which creates the opportunity to transform waste into useful outputs at the end of a sequential chain of reactions. Sisecam has taken a strong step in the fi eld of environmental microbiology with this technology.

Hydrogen gas was obtained during the disposal of inorganic wastes, which is the fi rst of its kind, there is no other solution that can produce hydrogen gas from wastes.

This new biotechnology collaboration will support Sisecam to reach 2050 carbon neutral future, she added.

With the message ‘Glass is Future’, she concluded her presentation by emphasising that since glass is one of the materials that changed the history of humanity from past to present, it will continue to be among the products of the future and produce sustainable solutions for many industries. �

*Glass Technologies Director of R&D, Sisecam, Istanbul, Turkey www.sisecam.com