The aim of the European joint project Furnace for the Future (F4F) is to achieve climate-neutral glass production. The plan is to build a hybrid electric furnace that can produce any colour of glass and use a high proportion of recycled glass.
Gerresheimer is one of a total of 19 companies participating in the joint project Furnace for the Future (F4F) are involved. In collaboration with the Ardagh Group, Gerresheimer now intends to develop, finance and operate a Hybrid electric furnace to push ahead. An industrial-scale furnace for the commercial production of glass containers from renewable electricity is to be built in Obernkirchen, Germany. Both technical and market-specific criteria for melting glass to produce glass packaging on a large scale are being evaluated. The demonstration object is to be built in 2022. Initial results are expected in 2023.
„We are delighted to be involved in this joint project, which will certainly benefit the entire glass industry will benefit. As a producer of speciality glass, we have extensive experience in the use of electrical energy in the Glass melting process and we would be delighted to be able to contribute them.“ Andreas Kohl, Global Senior Vice President Operations Technics & Quality Moulded Glass at Gerresheimer
The glass industry already works with electric furnaces in a few of its 150 production plants across Europe, but these are only used on a small scale and exclusively for the production of speciality glass. The new technology should make it possible to operate electric furnaces with a capacity of more than 300 tonnes per day, which any glass colour and produce a high proportion of recycled glass can use. The use of recycled glass can help to reduce CO2 emissions as less energy is needed to melt it down.
Project Furnace for the Future
Those involved in the project „Furnace of the Future“ participating companies produce a total of more than 90 per cent of glass containers in the European Union, which corresponds to more than 80 billion containers. Meanwhile, the F4F (Furnace for the Future) project is one of the top 70 projects applying for second-stage support from the European Union's ETS Innovation Fund, one of the world's largest funding programmes for the promotion and demonstration of innovative low-carbon technologies.
[infotext icon]Gerresheimer processes PCR glass already at some production sites. PCR stands for post-consumer recycling, which refers to the use of used glass from households and businesses. The use of PCR glass helps to conserve natural resources, as new glass is made from quartz sand, sodium carbonate, calcium oxide, dolomite, feldspar, potash and iron oxide for colouring. [/infotext]Source: Gerresheimer
