HORN Glass already reported on its participation as an industrial partner in the “ZeroCO2Glas” project in November 2024. Together with the project partners (IPGR, RWTH Aachen and Wiegand-Glas), HORN is pursuing the goal of developing a CO2-neutral melting process for container glass.
HORN supplied all the equipment for the new 2.4 tonnes-per-day hybrid furnace, the combustion and process control system as well as the complete construction work for refractory material and steel. The furnace, which was built in Aachen as part of the project, is designed as a hybrid furnace with hydrogen oxy-firing or natural gas oxy-firing and a variable electric boosting share. The forehearth can also be operated with either natural gas/O2 or H2/O2.
With the appropriate peripherals, a complete container glass production process is mapped. In the project, various operating conditions are systematically approached and precisely investigated to determine how they influence the glass melting process, the interaction of the furnace atmosphere with the refractory materials, the forming process and the product quality.
This highly flexible hybrid furnace celebrated its first glass on October 28, 2024. At the beginning of this year, the first operating state was successfully started up and kept stable so that a large number of measurements could be carried out. This data will represent the reference case when comparing the operating states. Data relating to the glass melting process will be gathered to characterise combustion, batch coverage, various temperatures and energy consumption, among other things. With regard to the forming process, for example, the gob weight and temperature, the number of cuts and the wall thickness distribution of the bottle are determined. Product quality is described, among other things, by the dimensional accuracy of the bottles and the number and size of glass defects, blisters and bubbles. This data is currently being analysed.
In the meantime, preparations are being made to start up the next operating state. In the next steps, the electric boosting share will be varied, inter alia. Other operating states, such as firing with H2/O2, will be tackled afterwards.
HORN is looking forward with enthusiasm to continue working on this exciting project with these great partners.