European Commission funds LIFE ClayGlass project

The European Commission (EC) has selected Spain-based LIFE ClayGlass from a field of 743 entries as a pilot project for the LIFE + Program after a 2012 call for entries.

According to the LIFE ClayGlass consortium, the project will be the first to use recycled glass as a fluxing agent in the manufacture of stoneware and bricks, reducing the environmental impacts produced by the structural ceramics industry.

The project is being funded through the LIFE program of the European Commission, designed to support innovative initiatives that contribute to sustainable development, the achievement of the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy and the environmental-related plans of the European Union (EU). The ClayGlass consortium includes manufacturers, a technical institute, a university and waste management companies.

The project focuses on the use of recycled glass, including glass from cathode ray tubes (CRTs), as a raw material for ceramics. Ceramics manufacturing requires natural clay as a raw material to make ceramic tile products, the organization says, and mixing clays with recycled glass allows for a decrease in processing temperatures that yields both energy savings and fewer carbon dioxide emissions.

The use of recycled glass as a raw material also entails the transformation of discarded glass into a resource, say the project’s backers. The consortium says the use of glass as a flux lowers the quality requirements of source material, because any type and color of glass may be used, including CRT glass and glass mixed with municipal solid waste.

It is one of 59 Spanish projects approved in the 2012 call for initiatives in the Environmental Policy and Governance sector. The total amount of EC funding directed to LIFE projects in this call was around 277 million euro ($306 million).

The group says replacing some natural clay with recycled glass in a medium-size factory can lead to 10 to 15 percent energy savings and a reduction of around 2,000 metric tons of CO₂ emissions per year.

During the three-year period of the project, technical feasibility and cost effectiveness of the use of recycled glass as a flux for the manufacturing of stoneware bricks will be proven, the consortium says. Results are expected to be shared with the industrial ceramics sector at national and European levels.

Member companies include:

• AITEMIN (the Association for Industrial Research and Development of Natural Resources), a technological center active in the sectors of mining and quarrying, construction, energy and environment;
• Cerámicas Mora of Toledo, Spain, a company dedicated to the production of low absorption facade coatings;
• Asociación Reinicia of Murcia, Spain, a compliance scheme for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE);
• Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, an international partner carrying out validation tests in their Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering; and
• ReciclajesPozoCañada, a WEEE treatment plant located in Toledo, Spain.
   

The consortium says that the project could achieve EC targets calling for EU member states to reduce consumption of natural raw materials, reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainability.

Recycled glass originates mostly from WEEE, particularly CRTs found in television sets and computer screens; windows and windscreens from end of life vehicles (ELVs); and glass mixed with municipal waste that ends up in landfills.

According to LIFE ClayGlass, a population of around 250,000 people will yield on average approximately 3,000 metric tons of mixed glass that has been mixed with waste. A medium sized factory, for example, could use up to 30 tons of this type of glass per day, LIFE ClayGlass says.