Air Liquide and Verallia partner to decarbonise Italian plant

Air Liquide will implement an oxy-combustion solution for Verallia’s Pescia plant in Tuscany, Italy to reduce CO₂ emissions and energy consumption.

The group will convert Verallia’s Pescia plant from a traditional combustion process to an optimised oxy-combustion during the construction of a new furnace on site.

The solution provided by Air Liquide combines the supply of oxygen and the reuse of the heat available from the glass production process.

The group will build and operate a new generation onsite oxygen production unit for Verallia in Pescia.

The oxygen produced by this unit will replace the air usually injected into the furnace, thereby allowing to melt the glass by oxy-combustion and to improve the efficiency of the process.

In addition, Air Liquide will supply its HeatOx proprietary technology to recover the heat emitted by the glass furnace to further reduce the amount of energy needed to produce glass.

The global solution provided by Air Liquide will contribute to the reduction by 18% of the CO₂ emissions (Scope 1 and 2) that Verallia targets for its glass furnace in Pescia.

In addition, the onsite oxygen production will be equipped with a cryogenic process and will be 10% more energy efficient than the previous generation.

Producing oxygen onsite also avoids its transport in liquid form by trucks.

Matthieu Giard, Vice President and Executive Committee Member of the Air Liquide Group, said: “This partnership will allow Verallia to reduce both the energy consumption and environmental footprint of its glass production in Pescia.

“Leveraging our deep knowledge of our clients’ production processes, it illustrates our ability to combine several innovations so as to develop tailor-made solutions with them. This collaboration is in line with our Advance strategic plan, which aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 while supporting our customers in their decarbonisation process.”