Owens-Illinois (O-I) is the world’s leading glass packaging manufacturer. The global headquarters is located in Perrysburg, Ohio, USA. O-I has about 80 plants in 23 different countries around the world and employs about 27,000 people worldwide. They have over 2,100 different patents around the globe and offer 10,000+ products. In 2015 alone, O-I produced a staggering $6.2 billion in net sales. Needless to say, Owens-Illinois is a leader within the glass manufacturing industry and is well-known throughout the world. O-I was founded over 100 years ago when Michael J. Owens invented the automatic bottle-making machine. Nothing that innovative in the glass-making industry had been produced since the invention of the blowpipe all the way back in 50 BC. The automatic bottle-making machine is now the foundation for the glass-making industry today. O-I first started out as Owens Bottle Machine Company in 1903. In 1929, that company merged with Illinois Glass Company to form Owens-Illinois Glass Company. Over the past 100+ years, O-I has grown and transformed into a global glass manufacturing company. When we went to O-I to learn about their energy reduction initiatives, we met with Noel Wendt. He’s a Global Energy Manager within O-I. Noel is originally from Australia and moved to the states about twenty years ago. He graduated with a degree in electrical engineering and has had various engineering positions within his career in the glass industry. At Owens-Illinois, there are various methods of melting the glass for production. The company uses a variety of furnaces and electric boosting to heat up their glass.
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According to Noel, there is a company in the Netherlands that does benchmarking on furnaces. He said that they compared O-I’s furnace technology to other glass manufacturers and O-I has the most efficient furnace in the world. To melt glass, they use three main techniques to first heat the glass. The first way is with their regenerative furnaces. These are interesting because they were created 100 years ago, but they’re still very efficient. There are two chambers located within the furnace. In one chamber, heat is generated using gas and air. That heat then passes through the area where the glass is located inside the furnace. All of the waste heat flows over to the second chamber and is captured. Within that chamber, large stacks of bricks absorb the waste heat to collect and store it until it’s ready to be used. The heat is then blown from its temporary home (the bricks) onto the glass to heat it more. After that, the heat generated from gas and air in the first chamber heats it the rest of the way. Eventually, the glass is heated enough to where it can be molded. “The exchange of heat from chamber to chamber recovers 60% of the waste heat,” Noel informed us. Though this is an old innovation, it’s increased efficiency by recovering 7,563 KW of energy out of the total 12,398 KW generated by the furnace. A new, innovative furnace has also been implemented for use at O-I. These are called Oxy-Fuel Furnaces. These use pure oxygen to heat the glass rather than air and gas. These were actually created about 25-30 years ago, so they’re not completely new. They’re more efficient for different reasons than the regenerative furnaces. Though they don’t offer any heat recovery methods, but they reduce nitrous oxide emissions. Interestingly enough, this is the only furnace that meets California’s emission regulations so that’s why they were implemented. One last way that O-I heats their glass (and the most efficiently) is through electric boosting. This is a method that generates electricity and transfers that electricity through the circuits located in the furnace. When the electricity is transferred from circuit to circuit, a current is sent through the glass to heat it. This method of heating glass offers the most control over any of the heating methods that O-I does today. There aren’t as large of fluctuations in temperature because it can easily be controlled by manipulating the electric currents. This method reduces gas usage and therefore greenhouse gas emissions by using electricity as an alternative. It’s the most efficient means of heating glass that the company has in place today. There is just one problem, it
According to Noel, there is a company in the Netherlands that does benchmarking on furnaces. He said that they compared O-I’s furnace technology to other glass manufacturers and O-I has the most efficient furnace in the world. To melt glass, they use three main techniques to first heat the glass. The first way is with their regenerative furnaces. These are interesting because they were created 100 years ago, but they’re still very efficient. There are two chambers located within the furnace. In one chamber, heat is generated using gas and air. That heat then passes through the area where the glass is located inside the furnace. All of the waste heat flows over to the second chamber and is captured. Within that chamber, large stacks of bricks absorb the waste heat to collect and store it until it’s ready to be used. The heat is then blown from its temporary home (the bricks) onto the glass to heat it more. After that, the heat generated from gas and air in the first chamber heats it the rest of the way. Eventually, the glass is heated enough to where it can be molded. “The exchange of heat from chamber to chamber recovers 60% of the waste heat,” Noel informed us. Though this is an old innovation, it’s increased efficiency by recovering 7,563 KW of energy out of the total 12,398 KW generated by the furnace. A new, innovative furnace has also been implemented for use at O-I. These are called Oxy-Fuel Furnaces. These use pure oxygen to heat the glass rather than air and gas. These were actually created about 25-30 years ago, so they’re not completely new. They’re more efficient for different reasons than the regenerative furnaces. Though they don’t offer any heat recovery methods, but they reduce nitrous oxide emissions. Interestingly enough, this is the only furnace that meets California’s emission regulations so that’s why they were implemented. One last way that O-I heats their glass (and the most efficiently) is through electric boosting. This is a method that generates electricity and transfers that electricity through the circuits located in the furnace. When the electricity is transferred from circuit to circuit, a current is sent through the glass to heat it. This method of heating glass offers the most control over any of the heating methods that O-I does today. There aren’t as large of fluctuations in temperature because it can easily be controlled by manipulating the electric currents. This method reduces gas usage and therefore greenhouse gas emissions by using electricity as an alternative. It’s the most efficient means of heating glass that the company has in place today. There is just one problem, it