New study outlines economic and technological challenges to decarbonization of flat glass manufacturing

A new study run by Compass Lexecon, the European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition, and the Enel Foundation confirms that the decarbonization of flat glass manufacturing through energy still faces many economic and technological challenges.

The study categorizes glass as a ‘hard-to-abate’ industrial sector, though potential solutions are being developed and tested by the EU producers. It also one of the sectors with the highest cost gaps between fossil-based and low-carbon technologies. Firstly, there is a technological barrier to developing electrified furnaces, due to the very high temperatures they have to reach to melt raw material inputs. Secondly, the continuous nature of flat glass production process is a complexity that has to be taken into account from an economic competitiveness perspective. Incentives are therefore recommended by the researchers to make both the CAPEX and OPEX cases for decarbonization of flat glass making.

The study especially highlights that, beyond technological considerations, full-electric or green hydrogen-based systems present a low economic potential for the flat glass sector, but that hybrid partially-electrified systems could be sensible from a competitiveness (CAPEX and OPEX) perspective  in the long-term.

Read the full study here: