A major industrial trial was successfully undertaken this month as part of a Glass Futures project to identify and demonstrate a variety of economically and technically suitable low-cost bioderived fuels for a range of industrial glass and ceramics sites with furnaces of varying designs and scales.
In previous Industrial Fuel Switching (IFS) round 1, phase 3 projects, Glass Futures demonstrated the feasibility of a number of biofuels such as for use in glass furnaces and identified fuels that emit circa 80 percent less Scope 1 CO2 than traditional natural gas. However, these fuels were found to be typically 2-3 times more expensive than natural gas and therefore, economically unattractive.
The first of five trials kicked off with a successful industrial-scale trial at Pilkington UK‘s (part of NSG Group) Greengate site in St Helens as part of a project funded by the UK government under the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s (DESNZ) IFS 2, phase 2 programme, funded within its Net Zero Innovation Portfolio.
Not only will the project develop a detailed understanding of these fuels, their availability and potential CO2 savings but will also assess their compatibility with Carbon Capture Utilisation & Storage (CCUS) technologies in a project led by C-Capture, demonstrating the potential to remove CO2 from the flue gas emissions.
Glass furnaces and ceramics kilns are pre-dominantly fired using natural gas due to ease of supply, and while the glass industry is already embarking on a range of new technologies to decarbonise glass melting, it is vital that these essential industries continue to find viable low-carbon alternatives to gas.
In March of this year, trials on Glass Futures combustion test bed facility provided valuable insights into the combustion properties of biofuel oil, alongside other biofuels, and the confidence to progress a selection of these fuels for trials on commercial glass furnaces and ceramics kilns.
The project brings together partners from two essential industries, glass and ceramics. Partners include major glass manufacturers such as Ardagh Glass Packaging, Encirc, NSG Group and O-I, as well as the UK’s largest manufacturer of shaped refractories DSF Refractories & Minerals.