Projects

HYDESS: E.ON and the consortium is launching a new study to assess the feasibility of green hydrogen as a planet-friendly fuel for steelmakers. The initial feasibility study, funded by the BEIS and its Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP), will be based at E.ON's Blackburn Meadows renewable energy park. It will explore the potential of generating hydrogen from biomass which can be used as an alternative to fossil fuels in South Yorkshire's energy intensive steel industry as a way of switching away from natural gas in heating and forging processes. Project partners include Forgemasters and Forged Solutions, working alongside Chesterfield Special Cylinders and supported by the AMRC/University of Sheffield and Glass Futures. We will use our combustion test bed to investigate these important questions, the small scale trials will be performed using 50% and 100% hydrogen blends to assess product quality gaps.

ECONOMISER:

This project has seen the creation of the Foundation Industries Sustainability Consortium (FISC) bringing together global leaders in innovation, research, and technology from across the cement, metal, glass, ceramic, paper, polymer, and chemical industries.

DEEP Control:

Our member Encirc, with bid writing support from us, won funding to digitally link its furnaces to 14 production lines to optimise its furnaces to run at minimum viable energy, connecting the control systems for processes across the whole production line and using data analysis techniques to optimise production. This will deliver huge carbon reductions each year whilst improving productivity and product quality. The project is being delivered in partnership with the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Hartree Centre and Siemens.

C-Capture CCUS Innovation:

This technology project surveyed, identified, and developed an understanding of carbon capture technologies and those currently under development to build an understanding of which are most suited to glass manufacturing technically and economically.

IRIFIO D2:

The UK glass sector produces £307m of toughened glass each year. NiS defects, which are difficult to detect, are estimated to affect around 1% of toughened panels and cause catastrophic failure. Existing practice is to heat-soak panels for long periods to stimulate this failure before the panels go to the end user. This results in high rates of false positives (60%) resulting in around 11,000m2 of float glass a year. The ceramic and metal sectors have similar inspection issues which use large amounts of energy, emitting CO2 and wasted energy. This project will look at the design, hardware, and software of inspection systems for glass, ceramics, and the metal sector to make processes more efficient and less energy intensive.

HYVALUE Recovery:

A previous project on catalytic conversion of methane to hydrogen explored the potential use of hydrogen by-products, generated from the manufacture of functional carbon nanotube production, in the float glass manufacturing process. The Torstran Electric and WHR Furnace Programme will see installation of electric CNT furnaces and the WHY system/flue connections leading to furnace stabilisation and production trials allowing for continuous Torstran production. Once the concept is demonstrated it will operate 24/7 on a commercial scale furnace. Product optimisation will also allow the glass industry to benefit from electrically conductive coating for glazing and pollutant abatement coatings for reaction glass and steel.