Experimental Study of Weathered Tempered Glass Plates from the Northeastern United States

2022

Glass Struct Eng

Glass is one of the UK’s eight energy-intensive industries. As such, it is under scrutiny to decouple growth in production from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Recycled glass, also known as cullet, requires less energy to melt than primary raw materials in new glass production. The use of cullet thus reduces the energy intensity per unit of output whilst also reducing demand for primary material resources. However, efficient systems for flat glass collection are yet to be established in the UK, resulting in a limited supply of cullet available for the flat glass market and missed environmental opportunities. This study identifies the existing supply-chain inefficiencies in the UK glass industry in three stages. Firstly, the mass flows of materials within the three main glass sectors: container glass, flat glass and glass wool, are mapped from natural resource through to primary application and subsequent end-of-life management based on a reference year of annual production figures. The map is presented in the form of a “Sankey” diagram which draws attention to several opportunities for increasing resource efficiency; namely in the stark contrast in glass collection rates between the flat and container glass industry. Using the data collected on the annual mass flows of materials in the UK flat glass sub-sector, the energy (MJ) and GHG emission (CO2-eq) saving potential of enhanced end-of-life collection methods are assessed, based on three alternative recovery scenarios. These scenarios consider the use of alternative distributions of recovered flat glass cullet in the three primary glass sub-sectors. The emission savings resulting from each recovery scenario are evaluated, based on the estimated tonnage yield of finished flat glass products. It is shown that together with improved manufacturing yield, the reutilization of end-of-life flat glass as cullet in new production could reduce the annual emissions of the UK flat glass value-chain by up to 18.6%. Finally we review the existing barriers to recycling different glass types based on acceptability criteria and available take-back infrastructure, and thus find that the advancement of improved recycling rates will rely on establishing the business opportunity and/or supporting policy for developing efficient systems for flat glass collection.

Section: Alternative Routes To Minimise Energy Inputmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping the flat glass value-chain: a material flow analysis and energy balance of UK production

Hartwell

Coult²,

2022

Glass Struct Eng

“…Alternative options for material efficiency such as the direct reuse of flat glass, would avoid the need for remelting cullet and energy-intensive secondary processing methods, which could result in higher energy savings. However, as demonstrated by (Afolabi et al, 2016;Datsiou and Overend, 2017), strength-reducing flaws accumulate on exposed glass surfaces of glass during its service life. Therefore the suitability of reuse as a viable recovery option, requires further research on the trade-offs in performance and possible reconditioning methods.…”

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping the flat glass value-chain: A material flow analysis and energy balance of UK production

Hartwell

Coult²,

2022

Preprint

Glass is one of the UK’s eight energy-intensive industries. As such, it is under scrutiny to decouple growth in production from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The energy input associated with glass production can be reduced by using recycled glass (cullet) in new glass production, which enables lower furnace operating temperatures and reduces demand for primary raw materials. However, efficient systems for flat glass collection are yet to be established in the UK, resulting in a limited supply of cullet available for the flat glass markets and missed environmental opportunities. This study identifies the existing supply-chain inefficiencies of the UK glass industry in three stages. Firstly, the mass flows of materials within the three main glass sectors: container glass, flat glass and glass wool, are mapped from natural resource through to primary application and subsequent endof-life management based on a reference year of annual production figures. The map is presented in the form of a Sankey diagram which draws attention to several opportunities for increasing resource efficiency; namely in the stark contrast in glass collection rates between the flat and container glass industry. Using the collected data on the annual mass flows of materials in the UK flat glass sub-sector, the energy (MJ) and GHG emission (CO2-eq) saving potential of enhanced end-of-life collection methods are assessed, based on three alternative recovery scenarios. These scenarios consider the use of alternative distributions of recovered flat glass cullet in the three primary glass sub-sectors. The emission savings resulting from each recovery scenario is evaluated, based on the estimated tonnage yield of finished flat glass products. It is shown that together with improved manufacturing yield, the reutilization of end-of-life flat glass as cullet in new production could reduce the annual emissions of the UK flat glass value-chain by up to 18%. Finally we review the existing barriers to recycling different glass types based on acceptability criteria and available take-back infrastructure, and thus find that the advancement of improved recycling rates will rely on establishment of the business opportunity and/or supporting policy for efficient systems of flat glass collection.

“…However, sourcing of naturally aged toughened glass is difficult, due to the relatively recent use of toughened glass in the building industry. In fact, only one study appears to exist on the weathering action on fully toughened glass (Afolabi et al 2016) wherein, weathered fully toughened glass was found to meet the strength requirements set in ASTM E1300-12A (2012) Fig. 3 Artificial ageing of glass with falling abrasive method: a whole set-up and; b glass specimen abrasion after 20 years of exposure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The strength of aged glass

Datsiou

2017

Glass Struct Eng

Glass is known for its excellent durability, but the strength of glass is very sensitive to the characteristics of its surface, which is known to accumulate damage during its service life. There is however, a lack of strength data on weathered or aged glass, particularly on thermally or chemically treated glass. In this study a carefully calibrated sand trickling test is used to produce surface damage equivalent to erosive action of 20 years of natural weathering on different types of glass: soda-lime-silica annealed, soda-limesilica fully toughened and aluminosilicate chemically toughened. The soda-lime-silica glass specimens are tested destructively in their as-received and artificially aged form in a conventional coaxial double ring setup, while the alumino-silicate chemically toughened specimens are tested in an improved coaxial double ring set-up. Fractography is subsequently used to identify and measure the critical flaw size on each specimen. The strength data are analysed statistically and the design strengths for each glass type are obtained. It is found that all glasses suffer a loss in strength after artificial ageing, with fully toughened glass providing the best post-aged performance. It was also found that Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article