The fight against climate change at Saverglass
The Carbon Status Report the company completed in 2020, showed that Saverglass has already achieved a decrease in emissions by 11 percent between 2009 and 2019. The company has now defined an ambitious low-carbon roadmap and have set up an approach aimed at decarbonizing its activity in stages. The goal is carbon neutrality by 2050.
Saverglass’ low-carbon roadmap includes the following main areas of work:
- improving energy efficiency;
- increasing the share of clean energy used to manufacture glass.
The company has a concrete and detailed action plan to achieve its goal.
Among these actions, the HYDROGEN PROJECT (H2) is one of the most promising programs led by Saverglass.
What is the “hydrogen project” (H2)?
Decarbonization: a key objective for Saverglass
Glass manufacturing is energy-intensive and therefore highly emissive of GHGs (greenhouse gases).
To melt the sand, the limestone and the sodium carbonate which compose the glass requires the furnaces be heated to 1,500°C. And they are mainly fuelled by natural gas.
In the face of global warming, Saverglass believes decarbonizing its activity is an imperative.
To achieve this goal, the company is using and studying all the levers available. For example,
- recovering heat from our flue gases using regenerators,
- rethinking the design of our furnaces and glass recipes,
- and also exploiting intelligent technologies to save energy.
Saverglass is also working on the source of the energy consumed and the supply of the furnaces. Ultimately, the goal is low-carbon glass and the gradual reduction of CO2 emissions throughout the value chain, both the upstream and downstream activity.