During a recent meeting of glass experts from around the globe, discussions were held on “Energy Reduction in Glass Melting”. In the form of a round table, the meeting dealt with topics concerning the progress made in short and long term initiatives related to energy saving in glass melting.
On 20 November 2012, glass experts from Belgium, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands, Czech Republic and Turkey met for a full day panel on “Energy Reduction in Glass Melting”. The panel was a joint initiative by Ruud Beerkens (Celsian) and Roland Langfeld (SCHOTT AG). Referring to the glass roadmap published by ICG (“Making Glass Better”), the progress made in short and long term initiatives related to energy saving in glass melting was presented and discussed. The event was moderated by Prof. Helmut Schaeffer, who used a “round table” format for a lively discussion among the more than 40 participants.
Topics of this panel included:
•   user reports on many incremental improvements in energy saving leading to significant energy savings in total;
•   improvements in simulation tools and sensors;
•   new insights in physical/chemical understanding of batch melting and (re-)fining as main source for energy savings;
•   progress made in new energy saving technologies such as TCR (thermo chemical recuperation) and HOTOX (hot oxy fuel);
•   intense discussion of the status of the segmented melter concept;
•   report on the actual status of the Japanese inflight-melting concept.
The gap between status today and the results necessary to face the energy challenge of the glass industry were discussed. The outcome of this panel will help the new cluster chair for production, Hande Sesigür (Sisecam), together with her predecessor Ruud Beerkens (Celsian) to prepare for the ICG Glass Trend Seminar in April 2013. It has become obvious already that “energy” should be a leading topic for the new cluster strategy.