Orora has announced to have commenced operation of one of Australia’s most sustainable wine glass furnaces in Gawler, South Australia.
The newly rebuilt furnace is powered in part by oxy-fuel technology drawn from Orora’s very own onsite oxygen plant. This step moves Orora’s furnace into the top 10 percent of energy efficient furnaces worldwide.
Orora announced its plan to build an oxygen plant onsite at its Gawler Glass facility in 2022, after being awarded a AUD 12.5 million federal government grant under the under the Modern Manufacturing Initiative – Manufacturing Translation Stream, Recycling and Clean Energy program, to accelerate development and commercialisation of low emissions technologies.
Orora’s new oxy-fuel furnace is expected to deliver significant sustainability benefits including a reduction in nitrogen oxides of up to 80 percent, CO2 reduction of approximately 20 percent and total furnace energy reduction of up to 25 percent.
Greg Savage, Senior Vice President – Asia Pacific for Orora Glass, said, “We’re excited to take the sustainability of Orora Glass to the next level with this new technology. By combining an increasing amount of recycled cullet from our beneficiation plant together with our oxygen-fuelled furnace, Orora Glass will deliver even more sustainable, lower carbon glass containers for our customers.”
Most of the energy needed to make glass is used by the furnace to heat and melt the raw ingredients that go into making glass. Older furnace technology relies on a mix of natural gas and air to heat the furnace to melt these ingredients. Atmospheric air is made up of approximately 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen and small amounts of various other gases; nitrogen takes no part in the combustion process and the energy required to heat the nitrogen is lost or wasted.
Supplied by an oxygen plant, oxy-fuel furnace technology involves a mix of natural gas and oxygen, instead of air to produce heat for the furnace. Since the oxygen is almost pure, there is no nitrogen component being heated, which results in lower total energy consumption. Another benefit is that higher flame temperatures are possible, which means less energy is required to reach the temperature for melting recycled glass cullet and the other ingredients that are needed to create glass.