Glass Futures opens £54mln research and technology centre
A £54mln research and technology centre in St Helens, UK will pioneer ways of making carbon-neutral glass to help the global glass industry.
Glass Futures in collaboration with the global glass industry has opened the world’s first openly accessible, commercially available, multi-disciplinary, glass melting facility, say the not-for-profit.
The Global Centre of Excellence in St Helens will soon be home to a unique experimental furnace and other technology to help in moving towards carbon-neutral glass.
The 50,292m3 state-of-the-art facility will be capable of producing up to 30t of glass per day in a purposefully designed research and development furnace.
Members, researchers and industry leaders will collaborate and experiment with different energy sources, raw materials, and technologies to demonstrate solutions leading to sustainable energy usage in the glass-making process.
Glass Futures was first conceived as an idea a decade ago.
An event attended by over 100 guests brought together Glass Futures members from around the world including glass manufacturers and university academics with funders and local politicians.
Guests were toured round the new facility and see where the furnace will be installed ahead of its first firing planned for early 2024.
Speaking at the event Richard Katz, CEO of Glass Futures said, 'The glass industry and the wider foundation industries (ceramics, steel, metal, chemicals, paper, and cement) need to decarbonise, to use energy sustainably and move away from natural gas as their main energy source.
'That’s why we exist and it’s thanks to the ongoing support of our founders, members, funders and supporters that we’re standing here today – but this really is just the start.'
UK industrialist and Vice-Chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership Juergen Maier CBE, who was among the first supporters of Glass Futures, says: 'We need to create new industries of the future, that’s the only way to ultimately create well paid jobs and prosperity.'
