The LIFE SUGAR project (LIFE19 CCM/IT/001314) activities have continued at full steam in the last months, with relevant achievements in the field of CFD modeling and design of the pilot system, and, most importantly, with the completion of the design and subsequent construction of the Mock-Up system at the Savona Campus of the University of Genoa, that will be used as a simplified testing rig for the evaluation of several critical aspects of the SUGAR technologies under development.
In particular, construction materials and catalytic beds will be tested to determine which solutions guarantee the best performances in terms of Steam-Methane Reforming reaction yield, catalyst durability, etc. The experimental results will also provide additional evidences for the validation of the modeling tools employed in the design phase.
Moreover, also the sampling equipment and the analytical tools and methods to be depolyed on the pilot scale SUGAR system, that is going to be installed at a later date inside a full scale industrial glass melting furnace, will be thoroughly tested and fine tuned.
Thanks to the improvement in the overall COVID-19 Pandemic situation in Italy, on-site operative trials with the participation in person of ALL the involved partners (Stara Glass, Stazione Sperimentale del Vetro, KT – Kinetics Tecnology, Johnson Matthey PLC and University of Genoa) will finally be possible again, so starting from November 2021, the SUGAR team will start to “turn up the heat” at the Savona Campus.
Stay tuned for further updates!
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The SUGAR technological development project, co-funded by the EU LIFE Programme (LIFE19 CCM/IT/001314), represents a new endeavour towards a more sustainable Glass Industry.
The acronym of the project stands for SUstainable Glass – Architecture of a furnace heat recovery system including a steam Reformer, and, as the title suggests, the project is focused on the development of an innovative embodiment of Steam Methane Reforming (SMR), to be implemented into an air-fuel fired soda-lime glass melting furnace, to enhance its energy efficiency with respect to conventional regenerative furnaces.
In particular, the innovative SUGAR module will exploit the residual heat of furnace flue gases to perform an endothermic steam methane reforming reaction, converting a part of the natural gas fuel input feed into H2-rich syn-gas, that will then be burned inside the melting furnace through a purposely designed combustion system.
This way, it will be possible to push the energy recovery from waste gases beyond the thermodynamic heat exchange limit of the regenerator system, reducing energy and fuel consumption, and therefore also reducing the CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere by the glass melting process.
For more detailed information, please visit the project’s website: