THE GLOBAL CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

ST HELENS

Glass Futures is creating a new glassmaking Pilot Plant facility in St Helens, United Kingdom, to provide a Global Centre of Excellence for sustainable manufacture of glass.

The facility will bridge the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) gap between research activity and full commercial implementation.

It will have full plant utilities and services, a full-scale Batch Plant, initially a 30 tonnes per day furnace complete with abatement and heat recovery. The glass output can also be processed by an IS machine and cold end container process coating, inspections and packing line.

In order to achieve this, Glass Futures, a “not for profit” Research and Technology Organisation (RTO), will be operating a membership scheme with industry partners, glass end user customers and suppliers. Glass Futures will use the facility to provide commercially robust training and development activity to meet and exceed the demands of the global glass industry.

 

Projects of key interest include:

  • Development of alternative fuel technologies
  • Robotic operations and automation
  • Heat recovery, abatement and CCUS demonstrations
  • Secondary raw materials for a circular economy
  • Raw material and cullet processing technology
  • New compositions and treatments
  • Industry 4.0 applications
  • Next generation refractories
  • Inspection equipment and sensors