Energy efficiency during manufacturing
Energy efficiency during manufacturing
We strive to discover technologies that improve the effectiveness of our manufacturing processes. As every initiative counts, we encourage our plants to experiment and lead the way for their sister plants around the world. Some recent examples:
As of mid-2024, around 75% of Guardian Glass float lines have installed Expert System, a monitoring program that automates data collection from furnace thermal couples and calculates the amount of fuel going into the furnace. Expert System helps regulate and stabilize furnace temperature control.
Europe
Various initiatives – furnace rebuilds, efficiency projects and decommissioning activities – primarily driven by our efforts to optimize our industrial footprint, have led to improved energy efficiency and reduced carbon emissions at our plants.
After recent improvements, the new Bascharage float glass furnace is expected to be ~25% more energy efficient over time, compared to a traditional air-fuel furnace.
North America
Guardian Glass Kingsburg implemented in 2019 an automatic function in the coater process to ramp down power supply kilowatts and gas flow setpoints during periods of coater inactivity, which helps reduce energy consumption and associated CO2eq emissions. It significantly reduces the number of materials used during times of coater inactivity, extending the target lifespan by about 158 days per year. There are also significant energy savings of approximately 10.6 kWh for every minute it is active. This totals to about 640 kWh per hour! Since implementation, the technology has contributed to over 550,000 kWh in energy savings, which is enough energy to continuously power over 1,000 60-watt lightbulbs for a year.
Latin America
Following the installation of the Expert System, and the resulting enhanced temperature control, our sites in Porto Real and Tatuí, Brazil, have reduced fuel consumption by more than 1%, a sizable reduction for float glass manufacturing between Cold Tank Repairs (CTRs).
Africa & Middle East
Our site in Cairo, Egypt, achieved an annual energy savings of 313,000 kWh starting in 2022 by replacing old High-Pressure Sodium Vapor (HPSV) warehouse roof lighting with energy-efficient LED fixtures and removing panels from the front windows to allow more daylight.
Asia Pacific
In our Rayong and Nong Khae plants, we have made a concerted effort to implement several energy reduction initiatives. We have:
- Replaced a total of 630 warehouse roof lamps with high-efficiency LED fixtures. The new LED fixtures have reduced energy use for lighting by approximately 55% at each site, totaling over 1,200,000 kWh in annual energy savings for both locations.
- Installed variable-frequency drives to the control fan speed on the glass cooling fans, reducing the energy required to operate the fans by more than 35%.
