Hrastnik, 28 November (STA) - The Steklarna Hrastnik glassworks presented on Thursday its vision to halve its total carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, including by switching to a hybrid furnace that uses clean electricity instead of fossil fuels to heat glass and thus contribute to the decarbonisation of the European glass industry.
The hybrid furnace, which is already in operation, will use a higher proportion of electricity to operate, up to 40%, a remarkable leap from the current industry norm of 5-10%, Steklarna said.
The new technology lowers consumption of natural gas for glass melting by more than 50% compared to the best available technologies, and is thus an important step in the decarbonisation of the European glass and energy-intensive industry, the glassworks said.
Over the next decade, the furnace will save more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, which corresponds to the total annual carbon footprint of 20,000 households in the Zasavje region, according to calculations by Steklarna Hrastnik, a member of the Vaider Group.
The hybrid furnace, designed as part of the BEAR (Batch-fed Engineered Air-fuel Resource) Hybrid Regenerative Glass Furnace project presented today, is in line with the energy sustainability requirements. The value of the BEAR project - the first and currently the only project in Slovenia to be co-funded by the Innovation Fund, according to the company - is estimated at EUR 3.73 million, 60% of which will be financed by the EU fund.
The hybrid furnace together with the local renewable energy production will be connected to the so-called hybrid energy storage system. This innovation, which is part of the Horizon Europe i-Stentore project, will allow renewable energy and glass production to further contribute to the green transition objectives, said the company.
"As part of the Horizon Europe Citadel project, we are already working to increase the share of electricity use in the hybrid furnace, which will enable further electrification in 2027," said BEAR project coordinator Gorazd Krese.
In the last three years, Steklarna Hrastnik has increased its own photovoltaic capacity and switched to 100% clean electricity procurement, which has also reduced emissions. In the future, the company is committed to sourcing even more renewable energy locally.
The glassworks also presented its sustainability manifesto today, with which "we have made bold, ambitious and measurable commitments to make our vision a reality", said CEO Matevž Fazarinc. "We plan to reduce our total carbon dioxide emissions by 30% by 2025 and by 50% by 2030. This means that by 2030 we will have reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 33,000 tonnes per year, which is equivalent to the carbon footprint of more than 7,000 households," he said.
Steklarna Hrastnik has also committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 as part of the global Race to Zero campaign, Fazarinc added.
Vaider Group CEO Peter Čas, who led Steklarna Hrastnik as CEO from August 2017 until the middle of this year, added that the Vaider Group, and Steklarna Hrastnik in particular, aims to create a legacy of outstanding glassmaking that puts sustainable innovation into practice, delivers top quality and protects our planet for the future. "Our vision is to combine centuries of craftsmanship with the power of state-of-the-art sustainable technologies to redefine the future of glassmaking," he said.
