With 8.5 million worth investment Steklarna Hrastnik has increased its production capacity to 138 tons of high-quality glass per day.Steklarna Hrastnik will increase production capacity of high-quality boutique bottles for spirits. With this investment, Steklarna Hrastnik has gained an automation of production and improved technological processes, which will strengthen the company at the global forefront of niche manufacturers of technically very demanding bottles.
Upon completion of the investment, which will have a positive impact on the turnover and profits of the company, the Director-General of Steklarna Hrastnik Andrej Božič said: "Steklarna Hrastnik is an energy conscious company which is responsible for the effective and efficient use of energy and water. Due to selected state-of-the-art technology and introduction of series of environmental improvements, which are based on our own knowledge, we have achieved significantly lower energy and water consumption even after we increased our production capacity."
In the last year, Steklarna Hrastnik managed to reduce water consumption by 55 percent, NOx emissions by 75 percent, emissions of dust particles by 35 percent and emission of CO2 by almost 30 percent.
Due to the last year's investment in the unit Vitrum, they have already significantly reduced impact on the environment; and with the latest investment in unit Special they reduced energy consumption by an additional 20 percent. The values of NOx emissions are now 800 mg/Nm3, which is currently below the legally prescribed limit. Emissions of CO2 have dropped by 10 percent. Due to comprehensive reconstruction of the wastewater treatment plant for process water, Steklarna Hrastnik reduced the consumption of fresh water for approximately 40 m3 per day. Treatment plant is operating under the principle of a closed circuit, which means that the water is not discharged into the environment, but always remains within the factory.
Environmental improvements are the result of company know-how, namely: reduction of gas consumption in the furnace B in the unit Special despite the larger capacity of the furnace, water heating with waste flue gases from the furnace B in the unit Special, part of the production is heated with fresh air generated from the cooling of furnace B, and the already mentioned reconstruction of wastewater treatment plant for process water.