Europe’s First Carbon Capture Trial in Flat Glass Industry

Europe’s First Carbon Capture Trial in Flat Glass Industry

NSG Group has announced the successful start of Europe’s first carbon capture trial on a flat glass manufacturing plant, as part of the XLR8 CCS – Accelerating the Deployment of a Low-Cost Carbon Capture Solution for Hard-to-Abate Industries project led by C-Capture.

XLR8 CCS is funded by the UK Government’s Department of Energy Security and Net Zero with £1.7 million of funding secured from their £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio. The funding is part of the £20 million Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) Innovation 2.0 programme, aimed at accelerating the deployment of next-generation CCUS technology in the UK. Additional private sector contributions support a £2.7 million total for this multi-industry project.

One of C-Capture’s carbon capture solvent compatibility units (CCSCUs) has now been deployed at Pilkington UK’s float furnace at the Greengate glass manufacturing site in St Helens. The CCSCU is now successfully separating CO₂ from the waste flue gas.

The trial at Greengate will continue for several months to assess the compatibility of C-Capture’s proprietary solvent-based technology with real-world flue gases from an industrial glass making furnace. A further five carbon capture trials will take place across the UK as part of the XLR8 CCS project at industrial sites owned by project partners Glass Futures, Heidelberg Materials and Energy Works Hull – in conjunction with leading consulting and engineering company, Wood. Carbon capture solvent compatibility units (CCSCUs) designed and built by C-Capture and Wood will be installed and operated on partners’ sites. Wood have also completed a feasibility study into 100 tonnes a day application of C-Capture’s technology at the Greengate site.

Paul Skinner, Global R&D Portfolio Manager at NSG Group, said: “To have demonstrated at our Pilkington UK operation that carbon capture is indeed possible is a very exciting development and a key milestone in our decarbonisation technology journey, aiming towards our target of carbon neutral glass manufacture. It’s been great to collaborate with the C-Capture and Glass Futures team in getting to this point, and we look forward to the further valuable learning we will gain from the rest of the XLR8 CCS project.”