Ardagh Glass Packaging (AGP) has begun construction on a hybrid furnace to enable a switch to renewable electricity at its glass production facility in Obernkirchen, Germany.
The company says that the hybrid technology in the ‘NextGen’ furnace will lead to a significant reduction in CO2 emissions, “by as much as 60%”.
The pioneering, large-scale hybrid electric furnace is said to be the first of its kind that can run predominantly on renewable electricity, with a small amount of gas. It uses high levels of recycled glass cullet to produce up to 350 tonnes of glass bottles per day, in various colours.
Container glass production currently uses around 90% gas and 10% electricity – Ardagh can invert this energy mix in favour of 80% renewable electricity and 20% gas – which it says will significantly reduce the carbon footprint of glass packaging.
Martin Petersson, CEO of AGP – Europe, said: “Decarbonisation is a key priority for our business and our customers. The NextGen Furnace represents a significant investment in creating a sustainable future for glass packaging, and we intend to roll out this and other low-carbon solutions across other AGP facilities in the coming years.”
Annelene Ikemann, sustainability director at AGP – Europe, added: “Our NextGen Furnace, in combination with our target to supply 100% renewable electricity to our facilities by 2030, is a positive step forward along our ‘Sustainability Roadmap’.”
She continued: “In future phases of this project, AGP aims to replace the remaining gas with green hydrogen, which will further reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In subsequent steps on our sustainability journey, we will look at a wider range of alternative melting technologies as we decarbonise our other facilities.”
The furnace is expected to become operational and start to produce commercial glass containers later this year.
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