Emerging Energy Efficiency and Carbon Dioxide Emissions-Reduction Technologies for the Glass Industry

Glass production is a highly energy-intensive process. The ongoing increase in world glass demand means that this industry’s energy use and CO₂ emissions will continue to grow without additional efforts for energy efficiency. There is significant incentive to develop, commercialize and adopt emerging energy efficiency and CO₂ emissions reduction technologies for glass production. Although prior studies have identified a wide range of energy efficiency technologies applicable to the glass industry that have already been commercialized, information is limited and decentralized regarding emerging (i.e., not yet commercialized) energy efficiency and low carbon technologies. This paper characterizes energy use in the glass industry and consolidates available information on 16 emerging glass production efficiency technologies, with the intent of providing a well-structured database of comparable information on these technologies for engineers, researchers, investors, glass companies, policymakers, students, and other interested parties. For each technology included, we provide information on the mechanism of achieving efficiency, case studies, challenges, energy savings, emissions reduction potential, other benefits, and commercialization status.