11 Abr Everglass: The new role of glass in a sustainable society. Technology for the integral recycling of glass
Los días 17 y 18 de Enero 2024 tuvo lugar la Kick-off meeting del proyecto europeo Pathfinder 101129967 — Everglass: The new role of glass in a sustainable society. Technology for the integral recycling of glass en la Escuela de Ingeniería Industrial de la Universidad de Vigo.
El ICV-CSIC es socio del proyecto a través del grupo GlaSS “Glasses, glass-ceramics and sol-gel materials for a sustainable Society”.
Miembros participantes: María Jesús Pascual (IP), Yolanda Castro y Alicia Durán.
Project summary:
Glass recycling uses mature technology limited by high energy consumption to melt tons of glass and the inflexibility of a heavy-duty system. Current technology only allows the recycling of certain glasses and a very small amount of waste generated. A new technology is required to allow the integral recycling of all types of glass, drastically reducing the carbon footprint. EverGLASS proposes to develop a radically new technology called «glass laser transformation» for on-site glass recycling and the generation of customized or technical products. Users will feed waste into a new machine and select which new product to get. The vision is ambitious, as it aims to bring to the consumer market a novel technology to enable virtually infinite reuse of glass. It is also radical since, through a multipurpose system capable of being located on any site, it proposes an alternative approach to the traditional centralized recycling process (particularly where this model is not possible, generating thousands of tons of glass waste annually taken to landfills). The new technology goes beyond the current limitations of the systems (high energy use, expensive and rigid process, strong logistical requirement), adopting a highly environmentally friendly model that will allow flexibility in the use of the material and in the process. Therefore, EverGLASS has the potential to revolutionize recycling as a concept. It also addresses one of the main problems with recycling, user participation, in an innovative way by allowing the personalization of recycled items of different use. Finally, it aims to encourage the use and reuse of glass as a quality material, displacing more environmentally problematic materials, such as plastics. This project brings together experts from advanced laser technologies (UVIGO, Spain), glass and ceramics science (ICV-CSIC, Spain), glass processing and engineering (TnUAD. Slovakia), risk and impact assessment (ACTALIA, France), Social Sciences (ESCI, Germany) and numerical simulation (ITWM, Germany).
Total grant amount: 2.961.225 Euros.
Link to our website: http://www.everglassproject.eu/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/everglass-eu/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EVERGLASS_EU
Link to one of the articles written about the Kick-off Meeting (in Spanish): https://www.europapress.es/galicia/noticia-investigadores-uvigo-lideran-proyecto-reciclaje-vidrio-tecnologia-transformacion-laser-20240117174829.html
Here is the Vigo University’s Press Release: https://www.uvigo.gal/universidade/comunicacion/duvi/investigadores-ee-industrial-lideran-proxecto-que-revolucionara-proceso-reciclaxe-vidro
Link to the TV Galician broadcast (in Galician): https://agalega.gal/videos/117943-tx-seran-17-01-2024/ (see from minute 26:47)