Owens Corning recently completed its second industrial plant trial using hydrogen in the production of glass fiber at its facility in L’Ardoise, France. This second trial is an important milestone as Composites pursues technology to decarbonize glass melting. Owens Corning Composites is now the first glass fiber manufacturing company to successfully test industrial scale production of glass fiber using only e-boost and oxygen/hydrogen combustion.
During this trial, the furnace was powered by 50% renewable electricity and 50% hydrogen. The trial tested equipment reliability, thermal heating homogeneity (uniformity) in the furnace, and manufacturing quality. During the trial, there was a 95% reduction of CO2e emitted by the furnace.
“This trial embodies Owens Corning’s mission to build a sustainable future through material innovation,” said Anne Berthereau, vice president, decarbonization and circularity. “As we test and scale the use of hydrogen, we can envision a zero-emission melting process for composite glass fibers, which would be a breakthrough in what has historically been a hard-to-abate sector.”
Composites is working to develop an industrial melting technology powered by a mix of electricity from renewable sources and hydrogen to make high-quality glass fiber reinforcements. This hybrid melting technology evaluation will continue with a four-month trial with green hydrogen¹ in 2025 using an on-site electrolyzer from the H2GLASS³ consortium and powered by the L’Ardoise site’s existing hydropower.
The trial is part of Owens Corning’s work with H2GLASS, an EU-funded consortium committed to accelerating decarbonization in the glass industry by supporting industrial demonstrators.
Owens Corning is pursuing decarbonization technology to achieve its science-based targets for a 50 percent reduction in absolute Scope 1 and 2 market-based GHG emissions² by 2030 from a 2018 baseline. More information about the company’s sustainability goals can be found in its 2023 Sustainability Report: https://lnkd.in/eMW32at
