The working group formed by Snam, RINA, Bormioli Luigi, Bormioli Rocco, STARA GLASS, University of Genoa, Stazione Sperimentale del Vetro, IFRF Italia, SGRPRO and RJC SOFT started a collaboration for the reduction of emissions in the glass industry.
The protagonist of this innovative project: is hydrogen.
Italy is the second largest glass producer in Europe (with over 5 million tons per year). And yet, the manufacture of glass objects is an energy-intensive activity - and its industry, difficult to electrify.
Here, more and more often “ecological” solutions are sought, and here the “Divina” project (Decarbonization of the Glass Industry: Hydrogen and New Assets) kicks off.
The project is coordinated by Snam, RINA and Bormioli, and aims to reduce emissions in the glass melting phase. This step, in the glass production chain, alone constitutes over 50% of the total energy consumption.
This collaboration will be able to give the first results also in the medium term, we will try to introduce a higher percentage of hydrogen during the glass melting phase.
The DIVINA project will give the possibility to test the compatibility of hydrogen-based combustion.
Today the main energy carrier used by glass factories is natural gas. CO2 emissions amounted to approximately 1.500.000 tons per year: overall, approximately 3,5% of the emissions of the entire manufacturing sector. The use of 30% hydrogen in glass melting processes would reduce emissions by 200.000 tons. We are talking about emissions equivalent to those around 100.000 cars.
Also in the project we will try to design new rules to create the ovens of the future, called 4.0 ovens.
Which will be furnaces capable of offering and guaranteeing better performance even with higher percentages of hydrogen, up to 100%.
The all-Italian working group is representative of the entire supply chain, and is an excellent test bed for the sector to grow and this Italian excellence aimed at the future and decidedly green.
Source: betterinvetro.it
