The glass industry must be fully decarbonised over the next 30 years. Since the lifetime of a glass furnace is only around 12 to 15 years, the year 2050 is just two furnaces away – so innovation must begin now. H2GLASS is developing the technologies that glassmakers need in order to achieve 100% hydrogen combustion in their production plants, to ensure the required product quality and to handle the process safely.
The project addresses the challenges of NOx emissions and high flame-propagation speed, of process efficiency and of hydrogen supply for on-site demonstrations. Digital twins are used for risk-based predictive maintenance, for optimised production control and for controlling the combustion system. Hydrogen is provided by a portable electrolyser co-financed via the demonstrators; the oxygen produced in the process is reused within it.
The H2GLASS technologies and design solutions are validated up to TRL 7 on five industrial demonstrators from three segments – container glass, flat glass and glass fibre – which together account for 98% of current glass production in the EU. Partners such as Steklarna Hrastnik, PTML Pilkington, Owens Corning and Stara Glass represent the state of the art in the use of hydrogen in glass production. A demonstrator for the aluminium industry (HYDRO) ensures the transferability of the solutions and models, as energy-intensive sectors share similarities.
In the EU, the glass and aluminium industries employ more than 400,000 people, generate over EUR 3.5 billion and emit around 21.5 million tonnes of CO₂. The innovations of the H2GLASS project could potentially create 10,000 new jobs and open up revenues of EUR 1 to 5 billion for the glass sector – alongside more than EUR 17 billion in investment and 200,000 new jobs in the field of green hydrogen.
Objectives
- Achieve 100% hydrogen combustion in glass production plants
- Ensure the required product quality
- Handle the process safely
- Validate the technologies up to TRL 7 on five industrial demonstrators
