Last 15th September, Libbey Holland held an official opening event for its L1 furnace. Customers, suppliers, employees and their families, local and government dignitaries together with EU representatives were invited to the celebration.

Attendees could visit the L1 furnace, which incorporates Praxair´s OPTIMELT™ system. This new system has a production capacity of 105 tons per day and replaces two old recuperative air-gas fired furnaces.

Professor Jan Rotmans, founder of ICIS, DRIFT, Urgenda and Nederland Kantelt, an international expert in the field of energy transitions and sustainability, talked about energy transition in different industries. He challenged the Libbey-Praxair team to go beyond our ambition of reducing emissions and to leave a better planet for our children.

Informative boards were located all around the L1 installation for visitors who wished to find out more about how this highly efficient furnace works and how it is possible to control the production process.

The Libbey-Praxair team answered questions about the technology implemented at the furnace and how they were able to achieve a stable glass making process producing glass with excellent quality and results for the market.

The L1 furnace is running steadily with stable production capacity under the Oxy-fuel mode.

During the coming weeks, once all the data from our study on emission, energy consumption, etc. has been gathered, the Libbey–Praxair team will move beyond the current Oxy-fuel mode, ramping up the OPTIMELT technology.