The glass industry is shaped by various market, technology and environmental trends. Although endless recycling makes glass an environmentally friendly packaging option for many manufacturers, there is growing pressure to reduce the carbon footprint of glass manufacturing and recycling processes.

This is reflected in increasingly strict legislation, forcing glass furnace operators to cap emissions – with attention focusing on nitrogen oxides (NOx) in particular. Because of the health and environmental risks associated with NOx, European legislation, for instance, has set new threshold values that lie significantly below the current emission levels in many furnaces.

In addition, glassmakers are increasingly challenged to control or reduce furnace, raw material and energy consumption costs and increase pull rates. High raw material prices are also prompting many glass manufacturers to increase their share of recycled materials.

The Glass Experts
Industrial gases are an extremely effective way of meeting today’s glass production challenges – helping you to increase furnace pull rates, enhance the quality of the final product and reduce emissions.

We work closely with leading glass manufacturers across the globe to help find the optimum answer to the complex equation between energy conservation, productivity, quality and emissions. Leveraging the latest gas-enabled technologies, we also pioneer various process innovations to help you realise your individual targets. Our expertise covers all glass types from float and solar through specialty and fibre to container and art & tableware.

Drawing on our proven capabilities across the entire glass spectrum, we support and advise you at all stages of the solution lifecycle. Our complete packages include:

• Full technical evaluation of existing plant
• Feasibility studies
• Individual development projects
• On-site trials and demonstrations
• Glass modelling with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and mathematical modelling (GS®)
• Complete hardware infrastructure
• Installation, commissioning and process optimisation
• Training
• Extensive after-sales service (consulting, safety, auditing and training).