Electrification of the glass industry and the impact of the Paris climate treaty

Introduction

The glass industry needs to continue reducing its carbon footprint, either forced by environmental legislation or by its customers. Since the improvement capability of traditional fossil fuel fired melting systems reached its limits in around the year 2000, complying to stricter CO₂, NO_x and SO_x emissions legislation has been an ongoing challenge. Even with technically complex and expensive add-on systems, it is becoming difficult to achieve targets. Electrical heating seems to be the only sensible way forward either by adding a potential amount of electrical furnace boosting or by changing to all-electric melting methods. As explained in many publications this will not be an easy progression but nevertheless it is feasible. One of the aspects that will need to be addressed is the efficiency of electrical heating systems. Considering that CAPEX (capital expenditure) will have a limit, and efficiency improvements cost money, we need to start considering this subject to work out what makes sense and what doesn’t.