Life ClayGlass to address CRT glass demand

Spain – From among 743 submissions, the European Commission has selected the Spanish pilot project Life ClayGlass for its LIFE + Program. The venture targets the ‘lack of high demand applications’ for cathode ray tube (CRT) glass.

Currently, the ceramic industries look mainly towards natural clays to manufacture their products. As a result, the sector requires cooking processes operating at high temperatures of around 1250 °C. Introducing a mixture of clay with recycled glass would permit a reduction in the required temperatures, leading to an estimated saving of 15% in manufacturing costs, a 10-15% drop in energy usage and a lowering of CO2 emissions by some 2000 tonnes per year (in the case of a medium-sized facility).

Life ClayGlass was established to address the ‘increasingly urgent need to reconcile economic and industrial activities’ with respect to environmental and resource efficiency, says project representative Raquel de Rivas Verdes-Montenegro. Transforming the waste glass into a resource would effectively diversify and extend the potential usefulness of the glass at its end-of-life stage, he adds.

sing the glass as a flux lowers the quality requirements of source material, meaning that glass of any type, composition and colour can be used – including glass derived from e-scrap and end-of-life vehicles.

For more information, visit: www.lifeclayglass.es