New committee TC09 hold first meeting in Eindhoven

Its name is TC09: Energy Efficiency in Glass Production.The aim is to bring experts together to discuss the energy saving potential and energy saving technologies available for all steps in the process of industrial manufacturing (from raw materials to glass product) and for all glass sectors.

At the first meeting, 14 experts from institutes, industry and suppliers of glass industries met; 6 glass companies, 4 institutes and 2 supplying companies were represented. The number of participants is expected to rise over the next few years.

The main direction of this TC is to define activities and studies of a technical and scientific nature. The most important suggestions proposed include:

• Investigations of new technologies applicable for energy efficiency improvement in glass production;




• Sharing experiences with application of new energy saving technologies or energy recovery from waste heat;




• Development of tools and models to investigate energy balances of glass furnaces & forehearths or other thermal processes in glass industries;




• Collection of data on energy consumption in glass industries per country and per process step or furnace (benchmarking);




• Organize symposia or sessions on Energy Efficiency or Energy Saving Technologies at conferences;




• Preparing guidelines to standardize methods of analysing energy efficiency of glass production and setting definitions for units of energy consumption, specific energy consumption and defining reference states.

TC09 will address all process steps, but the first priority will be glass melting, since this contributes on average about 60-65 % to the total energy consumption in glass production.

TC09 will become part of the Glass Production TC cluster of the ICG and will work alongside: TC11, TC13, TC14, TC18, TC15-21, and TC23.

TC09 is chaired by Dr. Ing. Hans van Limpt from CelSian Glass & Solar. Soon a vice-chair, secretary and webmaster will be nominated and proposed. TC09 aims to set up a website and wants to cooperate with other TCs within the cluster especially TC13 (Environment) and TC18 (Glass Melting).

TC09 aims to meet twice per year. The next meeting will be held in Aachen, Germany at the DGG, ACERS-GOMD and Advances in Fusion and Processing of Glass Conference which will take place from 25-30 May 2014.

Experts in the field of energy efficiency, thermodynamics, energy saving technologies in glass manufacturing that are interested to join TC09: please contact hans.vanlimpt@celsian.nl