Page 52 - Glass Machinery Plants & Accessories no. 3-2021

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES
Alternative energy technologies
H&S implications like ATEX-rated new furnace designs or potential up to 1.2 million tonnes of CO2
equipment, effects upon glass-melt- plant layout changes. Of course, emissions per year by 2030, which
ing and furnace refractories as well for 100 percent electric melting totals at over 20 million tonnes by
as the suitability of furnace geom- to become viable across the UK, 2050. However, without continued
etry and, finally, the effect on emis- all suitable incentives and advance funding in this area the industry is
sions, e.g. higher NOx due to hotter investment into national supply unlikely to explore such fuel sce-
flame. Here an ambitious R&D infrastructure will have necessitated narios until after 2030. Besides,
programme that can build a com- significant prior engagement with these new technologies are unlikely
petent understanding of these and government. to be implemented widely until after
other technical challenges is flagged 2040. Also, the need was identified
as necessary – a requirement that’s FLEXIBLE HYBRID-FUEL to develop a research infrastructure
further extended both to invest- SCENARIOS as well as expertise within the UK
ment in training programmes and Beyond the natural gas-electric that can support and drive rapid
to building an informed under- furnaces so widely-used, hybrid implementation of these low-car-
standing of the site requirements scenario possibilities have received bon fuel technologies. Respecting
for hydrogen fuel implementation. scant attention. Dynamic fuel- the UK economy this would have a
Referring to conversations with switching systems too have been knock-on benefit in terms of creat-
BOC the report advises that, as inadequately examined, as has the ing new, high-skilled, jobs whilst
things stand, it would only be pos- impact such systems might have leveraging significant international
sible to commercially source suit- upon the environment in terms of R&D investment.
able volumes of hydrogen to pro- emissions or CCUS. It was further underscored that
vide three-to-five percent fuel for Within this scope, the following the glass industry should review the
a typical glass furnace. The report scenarios have been identified as 2014 British Glass decarbonisation
continues that for the present this having the greatest potential: (1) roadmap in order to update plans
would render any meaningful large- biofuels + natural gas + electric, in accordance with the research
scale trial challenging, though suit- (2) hydrogen + natural gas + findings - all to ensure that the
able volumes may indeed be avail- electric, (3) biofuels + hydrogen + industry is not only aware of the
able in the future. Larger supplies electric. Further R&D studies and most promising decarbonised fuel
of hydrogen would nonetheless be furnace modelling are thus recom- technologies but also signed up to
required to enable the glass sec- mended to identify the most suit- implement them.
tor to undertake meaningful large- able hybrid furnace designs, which
scale trials. should then be worked up into pilot NEW REPORT TIMELINE
furnaces for larger-scale trials. The Due to the successful funding
LARGE-SCALE, 100 PERCENT longer-term impact of a UK indus- of a GBP 7.1 million programme
ELECTRIC MELTING try equipped with specialist knowl- from 2020 to 2022, a report will be
The study identified that fur- edge in advanced furnace control published with a major update on
nace designers are reasonably con- could prove highly advantageous to the above initial work carried out
fident they can design larger-scale both the economics of UK-based and this will be publicly available
(>300 t/day) electric furnaces, glass manufacture and to specialist, in summer of 2022, published by
despite such technical unknowns UK-based knowledge that can be BEIS. This report will outline the
as how efficient a semi-hot top exported globally. success of some major industrial
furnace might be. Owing to a lack trials and a significant amount of
of industry interest, little modelling BIO-METHANE laboratory work that has advance
-if any- of such designs has been Although bio-methane was not the knowledge and understanding
undertaken – all of which should covered within the study (owing to of these low carbon fuels. O
be the focus of short-term R&D its being beyond the competition
efforts. Here the greatest bar- scope), it nonetheless represents
rier to implementation is centred a potential route towards decar-
upon electric melting economics bonising the glass manufacturing
(i.e. the higher cost of electricity as process, thus rendering it a worthy
compared to that of natural gas). candidate for future studies.
Uncertainties also remain around
the scope/cost of supply upgrades CO2 REDUCTION POTENTIAL GLASS FUTURES
to each UK site in order to facili- The report concludes that the
9 Churchill Way - Chapeltown
tate full-electric melting, as well as low-carbon fuel technologies under Sheffield S35 2PY - UNITED KINGDOM
the CAPEX investment required for study have the potential to remove TEL. +44-114-290-1860
E-mail: info@glass-futures.org
www.glass-futures.org
50 GMP&A 3/2022