Penn State’s LionGlass project has reached a major milestone in its partnership with Italian glassmaker Bormioli Luigi, marking one year of collaboration and the signing of a second-year agreement to continue commercialisation efforts in the cosmetics packaging industry.
The partnership, which began in 2024, aims to scale up LionGlass, a new family of glass developed at Penn State, as a sustainable alternative to traditional soda lime glass. LionGlass melts at temperatures up to 400 Celsius degrees lower than conventional glass and eliminates direct carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by removing carbonates from the glass batch. It also offers enhanced mechanical durability, in some cases up to 10 times higher crack resistance than conventional glass.
In March, researchers from Penn State joined Bormioli Luigi glassmakers for a pilot trial in Murano, Italy, home to some of the world’s oldest glassmaking traditions. Over two days, the team melted two 100-kilogram batches of LionGlass in a rented artisanal gas-powered furnace and formed more than 150 clear glass cups, demonstrating that the glass can be manufactured at scale. Despite the furnace not being designed for the largest scale continuous production, the trial was deemed a success.