Vision: Protecting the planet and making glass.
Mission Statement: The mission of TC13 is to achieve best practice by exchange of information concerning current and developing techniques for reducing the environmental impact of glass during its production, use and disposal. This shall include the comparison of the results of different control techniques and the determination of best practice for measuring pollutants (primarily total particulate, NOx, SOx, HCl, HF & heavy metals) by means of parallel measurements, material balances, and round robin tests.
Action plan for the next 5 to 10 years: With emission limits becoming tighter and more expansive there is a critical need for better and more reliable measurements methods. TC13 will help provide the glass industry with adapted and affordable standard protocols, and it will help the industry benefit from new monitoring and emission control technologies.
Planned activities for 2024
There are two meetings planned for 2024. The first meeting will be online, and the second meeting will be face-to-face (venue TBC).
Future work items for discussion in 2024 include:
⦁ Updating the TC13 methodology to determine whether a glass is exempt from registration under REACH.
⦁ ELVs and the impact of using hydrogen and increased electric boost
⦁ Measurement of furnace emissions with high water vapour content
⦁ Impact of different sources of flat glass cullet on furnace emissions
⦁ Oxyfuel combustion and the impact on SOX emissions
Work will continue on the waste gas flow rate project, with the aim of publishing a paper by the end of 2024.
Activities and planned actions
Read more about TC13 work at: http://tc13.celsian.nl/
Activities in 2023
TC13 held two meetings during 2023. The first meeting in April was online and the second meeting in November was kindly hosted by Guardian Glass at their European headquarters in Luxembourg.
During the meetings, the group discussed a range of topics related to furnace emissions and decarbonisation. They also agreed on an update to the mission statement and discussed topics for future work items, which will be added to the action plan.
Discussions on furnace emissions included an update on the waste gas flow rate project as well as presentations on the factors influencing the formation of sulphuric acid mist and the revision of the EU Industrial Emissions Directive.
Under the topic of decarbonisation, BV Glas presented their decarbonisation roadmap and the different potential technology pathways to decarbonise combustion emissions by 2045. There was also a presentation introducing the EU funded H2GLASS project which will run for the next four years and demonstrate hydrogen use on a range of glass manufacturing sites.
SSV gave an update on the EU LIFE sugar project which is investigating the use of waste heat to produce a syngas via steam methane reforming. The hot syngas will be used in the furnace improving energy efficiency by 15%.
Bormioli Luigi presented details of their PRIMUS project which aims to reduce CO2 emissions by increasing furnace boost, installation of waste heat recovery and use of regenerative burners in the forehearth.
Each meeting concluded with a round table on decarbonisation projects, regulations and new abatement plants.
TC13 members at Guardian, Luxembourg
Activities in 2021
The first meeting of 2021 was held by web conference due to the on-going restrictions in place to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. The meeting had 22 participants (including seven invited guests).
The meeting first covered ICG business, which included an update from ICG on the ICG 2030 Project. The group were informed that the nomination of Mr. Kasper for the Turner Award had been successful and that TC13 had also been allocated €3000 of ICG funding towards the waste gas volume flow project.
The committee then addressed measurement of emissions from glass furnaces. This included discussions on the calculation methodology for flue gas flow rate for different fuels and a comparison stoichiometric method against the EN12952 procedure.
There was a presentation about the SAGITTARIO furnace and the monitoring work which had been carried out to measure the CO and NOX levels during the trials of the high efficiency air staging (HEAS) trials. The results demonstrated that HEAS was a suitable method for primary reduction of NOX emissions.
The second meeting of 2021 was also held by web conference due to uncertainty over restrictions in place to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. The meeting had a full agenda, and the 11 participants discussed many important environmental issues associated with the manufacture of different types of glass.
The meeting first covered ICG business, which included an update of the members list and the TC13 websites hosted by Celsian and ICG.
The committee then addressed measurement of emissions from glass furnaces. This included a presentation of measured and calculated waste gas flow data and discussion on benchmarking of NOX and SOX emissions.
The group then focused on decarbonisation which included a presentation on the British Glass net zero strategy and discussion on measurement of CO2 emissions for emissions trading.
The meeting concluded with a round table on regulations and new abatement plants.
PLANS FOR 2022
There are two meetings planned for 2022. The first meeting will be held online in March. The second will be held in September/October and will be hosted by Tungsram, in Budapest as part of the Association of Hungarian Silicate Industry (SZTE), International Year of Glass activities. Additional meetings for the waste gas flowrate project will be held online when required.
The rolling assessment of environmental issues addressed at each meeting will continue. This will include discussions on the recycling of flue gas filter dust, the REACH leaching method, emissions measurement techniques, conversion of SO2 to SO3 in SCRs, measurement of dioxins and PCBs and the performance of new abatement systems.
The committee plans to publish a paper discussing the calculation of flue gas volume flow and may also publish an update to its paper on the TC13 REACH leaching method.
Committee Members
Walter Battaglia – SSV, Italy (Chair)
Barış Orhan – Şişecam, Turkey (Vice Chair)
Mark Pudner – British Glass, UK (Secretary)
Meg Garakani – Guardian, USA
Loic Didillon – Guardian, Spain
Milena Marchegiani – Bormioli Luigi, Italy
Karlheinz Gitzhofer – HVG, Germany
Henrik Gustmann – HVG, Germany
Hugues Abensour – Saint-Gobain SGCV, France
Ulrike Aldenhoff – BV Glas, Germany
Bruno Symoens – AGC, Belgium
Peter Ferenci – SZTE, Hungary
Phil Ross – GICI, USA
Etienne Senechal – Arc, France
Luca Severini – O-I Manufacturing, Italy
Marco Van Kersbergen – Celsian, The Netherlands
Markus de Hesselle – Ardagh, Germany
Committee Contact Details
TC13: Environment
SSV, Italy