In the UK, Glass Futures, a not-for-profit membership research technology organisation, has published its report for the Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) which reveals low grade waste biofuels have the potential to decarbonise glass and ceramics manufacturing furnaces and kilns across the UK.
Having shown in a previous project, also funded under the Industrial Fuel Switching scheme, that higher grade biofuels like biodiesel are likely to be economically unattractive for use in the glass sector, and subject to stiff competition from the transport sector, this project focussed on exploring low cost, renewable, waste-derived biofuels that are more economically attractive.
Combustion trials undertaken by Glass Futures found that low-grade fuels (derived from cooking and waste oils) had a similar heat transfer efficiency to natural gas and analysis of the emissions indicated that they are not expected to impact glass quality, although further investigation is required.
