O-I Glass was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations to begin award negotiations for up to USD 125 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act funding as part of the Industrial Demonstrations Program (IDP).
The O-I decarbonization project was selected as one of 33 projects across more than 20 states to receive up to a total of USD 6 billion to demonstrate commercial-scale decarbonization solutions needed to move energy-intensive industries toward net-zero while strengthening local economies, creating and maintaining high-quality jobs, and slashing harmful emissions that jeopardize public health.
The Glass Furnace Decarbonization Technology project, led by O-I Glass, plans to rebuild four furnaces across three of its facilities in California, Ohio and Virginia to reduce scope 1 carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 48,000 tonnes per year, an average of 40 percent reduction of scope one emissions across the four furnaces and their corresponding production lines.
The proposed rebuilds plan is to combine five cutting-edge furnace technologies on each furnace, making the first time that all five technologies have been implemented simultaneously. These technologies reduce waste heat and increase electrification, making the furnaces more energy efficient and reducing both direct and indirect emissions. The project provides O-I the opportunity to demonstrate the functionality of combining multiple technologies across different glass colours and container types.
O-I anticipates each project would support up to 300 construction jobs (up to 1,200 across four furnaces) and plans to establish Project Labor Agreements and Community Workforce Agreements as needed throughout the project to ensure project success and workers’ rights.