INITIAL SITUATION
Glass manufacturing requires consistently very high process temperatures and has traditionally relied predominantly on fossil fuels. As a result, the industry is one of Europe’s most energy-intensive sectors and faces growing pressure to significantly reduce its CO₂ emissions and reliance on fossil fuels.
The challenge is not simply to provide heat, but to do so flexibly: a future-proof solution must be able to use a range of energy sources, some of them renewable — from biomass and waste to hydrogen and surplus renewable electricity — while also integrating reliably and efficiently into existing industrial glass furnaces. To make this possible, the EU-funded GIFFT project was launched to bring plasma-assisted combustion and gasification systems to glass production.
PROJECT OBJECTIVE
The overarching objective is to reduce CO₂ emissions in glass manufacturing by up to 75% through sustainable, hybrid and fuel-flexible heat generation. To achieve this, the project pursues four specific objectives:
Flexible syngas production from biomass,
waste and surplus renewable electricityDevelopment of a hybrid plasma burner
(50 kW electric, 50 kW gas)Integration into industrial glass manufacturing
Improving flame stability and combustion efficiency
This is complemented by the development of a fuel-flexible entrained-flow gasifier with an e-gasification function, which, together with the new plasma-assisted burner, enables hybrid operation in glass furnaces.
OUR SOLUTION
PlasmaAir AG plays a central role in the project:
We are developing the innovative plasma-assisted, fuel-flexible gas burner, with a consistent focus on integrating renewable energy sources – biomass, hydrogen and renewable electricity.
The hybrid burner combines electrical and chemical heat in a single system. Its operating principle:
The plasma burner operates with up to 50 kW of direct current (DC).
The plasma burner uses pure oxygen as the plasma gas.
Methane (natural gas) is integrated into the oxygen plasma.
Design point: 50% electrical energy, 50% chemical energy.
The variable ratio of electrical to chemical heating results in greater flame stability, a high degree of fuel flexibility and lower CO₂ emissions.
This variable balance between electrical and gas-based heat is at the heart of our contribution: it allows the burner to adapt to fluctuating energy availability while still delivering a stable, efficient high-temperature process for glass production.
To validate the design, we test the hybrid burner under various conditions, examining gas-flow dynamics, plasma stability, fuel mixtures, temperature distribution and performance under real reactor conditions.
