Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming TechnologyThe glass industry will have to be completely decarbonized in the next 30 years. The lifetime of a glass furnace is about. 12-15 years. So it is urgent to start innovating because the year 2050 is only 2 furnaces away.
H2GLASS aims to create the technology stack that glass manufacturers need to
- realize 100% H2 combustion in their production facilities,
- ensure the required product quality, and
- manage this safely.
H2GLASS will address the challenges related to NOx emissions and high flame propagation speed, process efficiency, and supply of H2 for on-site demonstrations.
Digital Twin techniques will be critical for risk-based predictive maintenance, optimized production control, and combustion system control. Hydrogen will be supplied by a portable electrolyser co-funded by the industrial demonstrators, and the oxygen produced will be reused in the process. The H2GLASS technologies and design solutions will be validated up to TRL 7 on 5 industrial demonstrators from 3 segments (container glass, flat glass and glass fibre), which together represent 98% of the current glass production in the EU. The expertise of partners such as Steklarna Hrastnik, PTML Pilkington, Owens Corning and Stara Glass representing the State Of The Art (SOTA) in the use of H2 in the glass process will be an asset for the H2GLASS Consortium.
A demonstrator for the aluminum industry (HYDRO) will prove the transferability of the basic solutions and underlying models to energy-intensive industries that have similarities with the glass manufacturing process, thus strengthening the impact of the project. In EU the Glass and Aluminium industries employ >400.000 people in Europe, generate > 3.5B€ and emit ca.21.5 Mt CO2e. The innovations generated by H2GLASS will potentially create 10.000 new jobs and unlock 1 - 5B€ revenues for glass technology deployment, >17B investments and 200.000 new jobs for green H2, and cut emissions by ca.80%.