Saint-Gobain manufactured flat glass using 30% hydrogen during recent Research & Development (R&D) trials.
The feat, achieved during test production at the Herzogenrath, Germany, facility means Saint-Gobain has proven the technical feasibility of manufacturing flat glass with a proportion of hydrogen.
This will complement other decarbonised energy sources and will reduce the site's direct CO2 emissions (scope 1) by up to 70%.
The technical feat was made possible by an R&D programme launched in 2022,carried out in collaboration with the independent German laboratory Gas and Heat Institute Essen (GWI), a specialist in industrial gas technologies.
It was financially supported by the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia to the amount of €3.64 million.
The industrial tests in Herzogenrath were preceded on a laboratory scale by trials carried out at two French research centres: Saint-Gobain Research Paris in Aubervilliers and Saint-Gobain Research Provence in Cavaillon.
Analysis of the data from these tests will make it possible to deploy the use of hydrogen in the group's floats in decades to come, when low-carbon hydrogen is available in sufficient quantities.
This breakthrough complements R&D initiatives on the electrification of glass melting and achievements, such as the world's first zero-carbon production of flat glass at Aniche in May 2022, thanks to 100% cullet and 100% decarbonized energy (biogas).
