Orora has started operation of a wine glass furnace at its Gawler, South Australia, facility.
The newly rebuilt furnace is powered in part by oxyfuel technology drawn from its onsite oxygen plant.
The Australian glass manufacturer said this step moves the furnace into the top 10% of energy efficient furnaces worldwide.
Orora was awarded $12.5m federal government grant under the under the Modern Manufacturing Initiative – Manufacturing Translation Stream, Recycling and Clean Energy program in 2022.
The oxyfuel furnace is expected to deliver sustainability benefits including a reduction in nitrogen oxides of up to 80%, CO2 reduction of approximately 20% and total furnace energy reduction of up to 25%.
Greg Savage, Senior Vice President - Asia Pacific for Orora Glass said: “By combining an increasing amount of recycled cullet from our beneficiation plant together with our oxygen-fuelled furnace, Orora Glass will deliver even more sustainable, lower carbon glass containers for our customers.”
How does oxy-fuel furnace technology save energy?
Most of the energy needed to make glass is used by the furnace to heat and melt the raw ingredients that go into making glass.
Older furnace technology relies on a mix of natural gas and air to heat the furnace to melt these ingredients. Atmospheric air is made up of approximately 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and small amounts of various other gases.
Here’s the clincher: nitrogen takes no part in the combustion process and the energy required to heat the nitrogen is lost or wasted.
Supplied by an oxygen plant, oxy-fuel furnace technology involves a mix of natural gas and oxygen, instead of air to produce heat for the furnace.
Since the oxygen is almost pure, there is no nitrogen component being heated, which results in lower total energy consumption.
Another benefit is that higher flame temperatures are possible with oxy fuel, which means less energy is required to reach the required temperature for melting recycled glass cullet and the other ingredients that are needed to create glass.
