With energy-intensive production processes and growing concerns about waste and emissions, the glass industry is under pressure to innovate. The EU-funded EVERGLASS project aims to offer a more eco-friendly approach by using lasers to transform glass waste into new products. We interviewed Rafael Comesaña Piñeiro, coordinator of the project.
Lea Hüvelmeier-Schmidt contributed to this interview.
The European Union stands as the world’s leading glass producer, boasting a market share of roughly one-third of global output. This sector, renowned for its product quality, technological innovation, and skilled workforce, plays a vital role in the EU economy.
However, the glass industry faces significant challenges, from the impact of economic crises and intense global competition to the need for enhanced sustainability. With energy-intensive production processes and growing concerns about waste and emissions, the sector is under pressure to innovate. The EU is actively pushing for greater competitiveness and sustainability, emphasizing energy efficiency, recycling, and adherence to environmental regulations like the Industrial Emissions Directive.
Current recycling methods struggle with diverse glass types, leading to landfill waste, and traditional recycling is highly energy demanding. The EU-funded EVERGLASS project aims to revolutionize glass recycling by using lasers to transform glass waste into new products, offering a more efficient and eco-friendly approach.
Rafael Comesaña Piñeiro, professor at the University of Vigo and project coordinator of the project, explains how this groundbreaking technology works.
Can you explain what the EVERGLASS project is working to achieve?
Rafael Comesaña Piñeiro: “EVERGLASS starts from powdered glass waste and transforms it into a usable final product. This product can either be repurposed for the same function as the original glass or serve a new purpose.”
Could you describe how the laser technology is used in the EVERGLASS process?
Rafael Comesaña Piñeiro: “We use lasers to interact with the glass waste, specifically glass powder, to melt it and shape it without the need for molds or additional furnaces. The strength of the EVERGLASS technologies is that we can transform powdered glass and any glass composition without relying on the melting temperature or additional processes. We can directly process glass waste.”
Can you describe the process in detail here at the laser centre?
Rafael Comesaña Piñeiro: “We use the glass powder that is provided by our partner, the Institute of Glass and Ceramics in Madrid, and we melt it using different laser processing parameters. We change the processing parameters in a controlled range, and we select the optimum values to further develop this process for the future industrialization of it.
We take the powder from the glass waste and we put it into a vessel that is continuously mixed and heated up in order to avoid the sticking of the particles. Then we inject this glass powder into the laser material interaction area and melt the powder. Thanks to this laser radiation, the powder is heated to above 1000 degrees to obtain the melting point. This is a very localized melting point without any requirement in terms of molds or additional additives. We then allow it to cool down this material and control it in a controlled manner. And thanks to a kinetic movement, we can produce the deposit of this three-dimensional part.”
What are the main challenges you’re facing with the EVERGLASS technology?
Rafael Comesaña Piñeiro: “The big challenge is to address different glass compositions that now are very difficult to recycle in conventional processes. For example, borosilicate glasses from labware, cookware, medical-containers, glass containers, windshields and mobile screens. Another challenge comes from different glasses with compositions that cannot be mixed with the common soda lime glass composition. This is because we need to adapt the melting temperature of the material. And this can only be made by a very dynamic system as the glass laser technology allows.”
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What are the potential future applications of this technology?
Rafael Comesaña Piñeiro: “The future areas of applications are both those points where, currently it is not possible to recycle these glasses in terms of composition, but also in terms of powder size. In soda lime glasses, we have a powder size that can be used for several things. We now want to increase the added value of the final product to be more affordable by keeping the environmental feasibility and the product ecofriendly.”
How is EVERGLASS more eco-friendly compared to traditional glass recycling methods?
Rafael Comesaña Piñeiro: “The laser technology allows us to modify in real time the laser optical power. And you cannot do that with conventional furnaces that have a very high heat inertia.”
How does the speed of production in EVERGLASS compare to traditional glass manufacturing, such as for vaccine glass bottles?
Rafael Comesaña Piñeiro: “The important thing is not the speed of the technology. Instead, with this technology we can produce single glass parts without any mold. We don’t need to develop the complete mechanical and metallic mold system to shape the material; that is only affordable if you produce thousands of bottles. We can address single designs with only one sample.”
Do you see this technology being implemented in industrial settings in the near future?
Rafael Comesaña Piñeiro: “We will soon develop the first ever glass prototype. We expect to finish this prototype after the first year of the project. Then we are going to also work on integrating a new [laser] source with 5.5 microns wavelength. We need to understand the interaction phenomena of this laser with the glass material. We need to understand that this glass project goes from Technology Readiness Level 1 to Technology Readiness Level 4. We want to work on the business readiness level to have knowledge of the following steps. That means developing the preliminary business model to be prepared in case the EVERGLASS technology reaches a successful point.”
