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Glass giant invests in sustainable glassmaking in St Helens
• Pilkington UK secures the future of rolled glass production in the UK with major investment in St Helens as part of governmentbacked project .
• Glass manufacturer will move its Watson Street manufacturing operations to its Greengate site in the town , with a major investment to upgrade its Greengate glass furnace .
• Working out of one glass furnace will save 15,000 tonnes of carbon each year .
Pilkington United Kingdom Limited , part of the NSG Group , is making a multi-million-pound investment in its Merseyside facilities as part of a government-backed project that will save 15,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year while securing the future of rolled glass manufacturing in the UK .
Under the project , Pilkington UK will move its Watson Street manufacturing operations to its Greengate site in the town .
The move represents a major investment in its Greengate glass furnace , which melts the raw materials into glass as part of the manufacturing process .
The Greengate furnace will be upgraded to accommodate its continued production of flat glass , while delivering the additional output required from the relocation of its Watson Street rolled glass manufacturing line .
The project was instigated as the manufacturer ’ s furnace at Watson Street , where the business has operated since 1826 , reaches its end of life . The site will be shutdown with all jobs from Watson Street being relocated to Greengate as part of the project .
Producing all glass out of the upgraded furnace , rather than running two , will save carbon emissions equivalent to taking 8,800 cars off the road each year *.
The work will begin in August 2023 , with the line due to be up and running by August 2024 . Watson Street will remain open until then , with no impact expected on the availability of glass while the work takes place .
The project will benefit from a £ 3.7M grant via the government ’ s Industrial Energy Transformation Fund ( IEFT ), which helps cover the costs of industrial energy efficiency and decarbonisation projects in the UK . Neil Syder , managing director of Pilkington UK , said : “ This project represents one of the single biggest investments we ’ ve made in our UK manufacturing facilities in decades , and will ultimately secure the future of rolled glass manufacturing in the UK .
“ Working out of one furnace will enable us to make a permanent and significant saving in CO 2 emissions . It ’ s a radical shift in the way we operate , but we know that if we are to achieve our net-zero ambitions , we need to make change across all areas of our business .
“ The Watson Street site has been operating since the 1800s and forms a key piece of our history . Throughout the years , the site has been instrumental in the development of different products , paving the way for a rich history of innovation in glass solutions .
“ Yet this move marks a new chapter in our story that allows us to embrace more sustainable ways of making glass and continue to drive forward our vision for change , in partnership with the industry .” Last year , the Science Based Targets initiative ( SBTi ) certified the NSG Group ’ s aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 % by 2030 , compared to 2018 levels . This forms the basis of the business ’ plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 .
The move also follows other work by Pilkington UK to reduce the emissions of its operations . Pilkington UK completed several world-first trials of low carbon biofuel and zero carbon hydrogen fuels to fire its glass furnace last year . The trials ran in collaboration HyNet , a decarbonisation project working to promote the use of low carbon and hydrogen energy across the North West and Wales .
www . nsg . com
* Based on a carbon saving of 15,000 tonnes of CO 2 and the average CO 2 emissions per car per year in the UK of 1.7 million grams ( NimbleFins )
76 JUNE 2023 CLEARVIEW-UK . COM