Lower-energy routes to commercial soda-lime-silica glass manufacture through changes in the raw materials balance

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This project is a collaboration between Glass Technology Services Ltd and Sheffield Hallam University that willundertake a feasibility study to develop lower-energy routes to produce commercial soda-lime-silica glass. Wepropose to make changes in raw materials composition and balance, including the partial replacement of batchingredients in a glass melting furnace to reduce melting temperatures and melting times, and consequentlyreduce energy consumption, costs and emissions by 5-10% across the UK glass manufacturing industry. Aninnovative and critical aspect of this research will be to apply chemistry techniques to waste products fromother industries (e.g. rice husk, banana waste, sea shells) to develop raw materials that can be introduced intoglass melting processes to either reduce the high temperature viscosity or provide lower energy input forfusion. If successful this project will lead on to a second stage programme of applied research targeted atdeveloping scalable technology that can be introduced into the UK's 18 glass manufacturing sites.