Glass Problems Conference review

Glass Problems focuses on ‘greener’ manufacturing

The 83rd Conference on Glass Problems included a two-day conference, exhibition, short courses, a one-day seminar focused on Energy Decarbonisation in Glass Manufacturing as well as plenty of networking opportunities. Greg Morris was there.

The event too place over four days and included a two-day conference.

Atotal of 423 industry professionals foccused on the glass manufacturing process at the recent Glass Problems conference (GPC).

A parallel exhibition included 60 glass and equipment suppliers exhibiting their latest innovations and technologies.

The two-day conference included 23 papers from glass manufacturers, customers and suppliers.

As well as two plenaries, themes focused on Quality, Melting and Controls, Refractory and Raw Materials and Combustion and Sustainability.

Opening the event, Bob Lipetz, Executive Director of the organiser, Glass Manufacturing Industry Council (GMIC) gave a love letter to American glass manufacturing.

Presented as a visual and oral poem homage to the glass manufacturing industry, it discussed the industry in the USA.

He said from the country’s earliest days glass has enabled the growth and vitality of American society.

The can-do spirit of America, the great example of enterprise that is the American experiment is reflected in the mirror of American glass manufacturing.

It was the final year that Mr Lipetz will be executive director at GMIC and he was presented with a commemorative glass piece from GMIC president, Scott Cooper.

A further plenary talk was provided by Dutch-based organisation GlassTrend, which was the first time the group had spoken at GPC.

Speakers Bruno Purnode and Oscar Verheijen provided a paper titled ‘GlassTrend to Benefit Glass Manufacturing’.

GlassTrend was created in 2001 and now, more than 60 global companies co-operate in the field of smart and sustainable glass manufacturing.

Its recent emphasis has been on hydrogen combustion, process electrification, and the use of low-carbon raw materials.

The presentation described GlassTrend as the globally acknowledged glass consortium with a focus on its members, its events, collaboration with other organisations and examples of joint industry projects.

Other speakers on the first day included NSG’s Andy Keeley discussing the hydrogen trials carried out in NSG’s Greengate, UK float glass manufacturing site in August last year (See Glass international September 2022, page 25) as well Leerdam’s Crisal Glass’ Marco van Valburg who discussed the company’s five-year operating experience with Optimelt heat recovery technology (see Glass International June 2022, page 10).

Further speakers were Celsian’s Andries Habraken discussing Modern controller and Sensor technology for energy efficiency, Vitro Architectural Glass, RHI Magnesita, Schneider Electric, and Stuart

� Eric Muijsenberg of Glass Service, Eddie Ferriera of TECO, and Julian Pedel of Linde, Inc.

Hakes of FIC UK discussing All Electric FH Design with Zero Emissions.

The opening of the second day saw Diageo’s Director of Packaging and Technology, Ronald J. Holmes discuss the challenges the company faces in its bid to use more recycled glass in glass manufacturing.

By 2030 the company wants 100% of its packaging to be widely recyclable or reusable/compostable. It wants to ensure glass is kept out of landfill and prevent it from being used as landfill daily cover. It wants to help improve recycling rates across the US. Recycling rates vary state to state but on average are about 30% compared to 50-60% in Europe.

Diageo is a board member of the Glass Recycling Foundation, co-founder of the Glass Recycling Coalition and has sponsored initiatives such as the Smirnoff Glass recycling in the Chicagoland area.

Day two speakers also included papers from TECO, the Czech Republic’s Glass Service, Sefpro, Robovent, Calcean, Linde, Air Liquide and Air Products.

TECO’s Edward Ferriera provided an update to a 2009 paper given at the conference titled ‘How Big is my Carbon Footprint’. This year’s paper discussed hydrogen as an emerging energy source and which has been added to TECO’s roadmap to meeting the future carbon emission requirements of glass melting.

To meet true carbon neutrality the industry must shift focus to create solutions to produce all types of glass products through all electric means, while meeting industry quality requirements. Mr Ferriera said electric melting has superior efficiency and energy can be obtained from geo thermal sources such as wind and solar.

Electric furnaces have a reduced furnace lifetime but that is not a negative – if a furnace has to be replaced every few years it allows glass manufacturers the opportunity to upgrade with new innovations. This is particualry relevant today in such a fast paced environment and technology changes.

One of his final slides highlighted the cost of doing nothing.

In a worst case scenario, the slide provided the estimated total cost of damage to each US county.

Many of the southern states of the US would bear the brunt of climate change and force people to migrate to the north, leading to massive infrastructure investment.

Electric melting also came under the spotlight during Erik Muijsenberg’s talk, titled Glass Melting of the Future.

Mr Muijsenberg, Vice President at Glass Service in the Czech Republic, said the EU requires a 55% CO2 emission reduction by 2030 compared to 1990.

As well as legislative pressure, consumers are also demanding a reduction in CO2 now. There is also an added incentive to reduce CO2 – the price of CO2 has risen to €88 from its relatively recent low of €20.

Biofuel has potential to help the glass industry, with about 100 to 350kg required to melt a tonne of glass.

In 2016 Verallia successfully held a six-month biofuel trial to melt glass but at the time it was felt biofuels were not economically viable.

But many biofuels require water to grow crops and water could be at a shortage in future he warned. On top of this other industries, such as automotive, will also want to use biofuels, so supply to the glass industry might be an issue.

He also analysed the potential of hydrogen in glass melting.

While renewable ‘green’ hydrogen is crucial to meet the Paris Agreement goals by 2050, it will take 10 to 15 years to develop the appropriate technology on a mass scale.

Until then, hydrogen is likely to be powered by fossil fuels.

While he forecast the majority of hydrogen will likely to go to other high-temperature industries, glass manufacturers should still prepare for its use. A significant advantage is it is easy to store and could be used as an energy source on those days when there is little sun or wind to power renewable energy.

He added it may make sense in future to locate a glass melting furnace close to the source of renewable power, such as a port or the coast where windmills are located.

At present the only way to get hydrogen to a plant is via trucks. Infrastructure to transport hydrogen via pipes would require the repurposing of gas pipelines or the construction of a completely new pipeline system.

He identified some of the benefits of electric melting compared to fossil fuelled melting, such as no emissions and dust, so no filter investment and costs for cleaning.

On top of that they are a lower investment, smaller in size with no or a simple crown and no regenerator or flue gas channels. They are currently sized at a maximum of 200/300 tonnes per day and the next challenge is the lack of experience with a larger furnace with higher pull rates.

He suggested for the next 10-15 years a hybrid furnace with boosting will be the safest choice of furnace with the gradual blending of biofuels.

The use of CFD modelling will be vital to support the design decisions and the upscaling of electric melting furnaces, he noted.

One solution to for glass manufacturers to help meet their sustainability goals may lie in the shallow waters of the Bahamas.

Alyson Myers, of Calcean discussed Oolitic Aragonite, which is a type of

biogenic calcium carbonate that forms naturally on the banks of the Bahamas.

Oolitic aragonoite forms during natural precipitation events called whitings, which appear as clouds in the water and been observed since the 1960s. Whitings occur when blooms of cyanobacteria enter the shallow waters of the Bahamas. During photosynthesis, carbon is sequestered from the atmosphere and through a mineralisation process on the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) of the cyanobacteria, bins with the calcium that is in the water, precipitating calcium carbonate.

Aragonite sequesters quantities of carbon from the atmosphere during its formation. The high purity of oolitic aragonite means it has little or no iron, excellent for high clarity glass manufacturing.

The 84th Conference on Glass Problems will take place October 30 to November 4, 2023 at the Greater Colombus Convention Center, Colombus, Ohio, USA.

US GLASS MANUFACTURERS FORM HYDROGEN ALLIANCE

US glass manufacturers have been encouraged to join a glass industry hydrogen hub.

So far producers O-I, Libbey, NSG and Johns Manville alongside the GMIC have said they will take part in a proposed hydrogen for glass manufacturing hub in the Great Lakes region.

But if more companies express an interest in joining the scheme, the stronger the likelihood of securing up to $1 billion government funding for the project to go ahead.

Glass Manufacturing Industry Council (GMIC) President Dr Scott Cooper outlined the proposal at the Energy Decarbonisation in Glass Manufacturing seminar at the 83rd Conference in Glass Problems last week.

The US government wants to form hydrogen hubs in locations around the USA as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

It has allocated $8 billion for the development of these regional hubs to demonstrate the viability of the entire hydrogen value chain in production, processing, delivery, storage and end use.

As well as industry use, the hubs will meet demand from power generation, commercial heating and transportation.

Some of the supply side requirements are that two hubs have to be in natural gas regions, and also that feedstock comes from renewables, nuclear and natural gas.

Dr Cooper, who is also Global Glass and Materials Science Leader at O-I, said about six to 10 hubs will be created with each one receiving between $400 million to $1 billion in funding.

The government was looking at a 50-50 cost sharing from outside government, and this could be from industry or as an in kind contribution.

So if a company were to put some equipment at its plant it would be regarded as an in-kind contribution.

The government has also made statements about job quality and diversity, and wants the hubs to be in areas of the US where manufacturing used to be located.

Dr Cooper said glassmakers came together on May 19 alongside the University of Toledo and representatives from furnace group Celsian discuss the proposal.

For the first time the GMIC had also visited Congressman in Washington DC during the National Day of Glass in April this year.

“It was eye-opening because we sat with Congressman and they listened. It showed that by coming together and having one voice for the industry they will pay attention, particularly if they have glass in their district.”

There are 10 glass melting furnaces within 50 miles of Toledo with a potential of 200 t/day of hydrogen for glass making.

“My message is that if you want your organisation to be a part of this, it is not too late, it is not set in stone.

“The idea is to drive alignment behind the glass industry because we are not the largest gorilla in industry. Sustainability initiatives and decarbonisation are bigger than any one of us.

“Glass is not the biggest emitter on the block but it is substantial, we have to come together.

“My call to action would be if you’re a leader in manufacturing is to be telling your top leadership that we should be working together on this. If we move to the big ideas it will require investment but if we do it right we’ll get government help.”

Full proposals are due to be submitted to government by April 23.

Any glass manufacturers interested in joining the alliance should contact Dr Cooper or incoming GMIC Executive Director Kerry Ward.

GMIC DIRECTOR SAYS FAREWELL

A glass director said farewell to the industry after 12 years at the helm.

Bob Lipetz, Executive Director of the Glass Manufacturing Industry Council (GMIC) in the USA said goodbye at the 83rd Glass Problems conference held in Columbus, Ohio, USA.

He will be replaced by Kerry Ward, who will join the organisation in January.

Afterwards he said: “When I first accepted the offer to manage the Glass Manufacturing Industry Council some 12 years ago, I could not have imagined what a remarkable journey it would be.

“It has been gratifying to see GMIC achieve its potential as the co-ordinator of glass manufacturing industry technical information, education, and initiatives.

“I discovered that it is a fascinating industry and I have made many friends along the way. You could say, ‘glass got under my skin’.

“The value of having the US glass manufacturing industry’s leading trade association organise the industry’s biggest conference was evident in the excellence of the 83rd Conference on Glass Problems.

Speaking at the end of the conference, Mr Lipetz said: “All I try and do is listen to what the industry needs and try and put it together. We have an advisory board from manufacturing companies and the big suppliers who have their finger on the pulse and they tell me.

“You are the industry and what you do is really hard but people don’t realise that, it is not that simple, that is why this is called the Glass Problems conference.”�

GPC IN NUMBERS

� 423 – GPC attendance

� 88 – Years since first conference (the conference took a hiatus during WWII)

� Two venues staging the conference (Greater Columbus Convention Center and Columbus Hilton Downtown).

� Five technical programmes (2 Plenary; Quality; Melting & Controls; Refractory & Raw Materials: Combustion & Sustainability) � 24 – Speakers including 8 plenary session speakers

� Nine industry experts in the GMIC/Energy Star symposium, Decarbonization in Glass Manufacturing

� Two short course instructors: C. Philip Ross - Batch and Furnace Operations and Sjoerd Stelwagen - Electrical Glass Melting

� 60 – Exhibitors

� 18 – Hospitality suite hosts