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Furnace starts at £54m sustainable glass factory

Marc Gaier & Jenny Coleman
BBC News, Liverpool
BBC Steve Rotheram is wearing a black suit with a blue shirt and a high-visibility yellow jacket and white hard hat. He is pressing the button on a large grey metal box control system. He is stood alongside two people wearing blue high-visibility jackets and blue hard hats.BBC
Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotheram lit the furnace at the centre in St Helens

An experimental furnace that can make glass and other materials using lower carbon fuels has been fired up for the first time at a £54m research facility on Merseyside.

The technology developed by Glass Futures is being tested inside a building on James Roby Way, St Helens that was developed by the firm to carry out industrial trials.

It is capable of producing up to 30 tonnes of glass per day, including flat sheets used for windows, as well as containers.

Justin Kelly, CEO of Glass Futures Ltd said he hoped the centre would "become a beacon for decarbonisation in energy-intensive industries".

Two men in high visibility yellow vests and white hard hats working inside the the production area of the centre with large grey machinery and yellow barriers.
About 60 people work in research laboratories at the site

The 165,000 sq ft (5,0292 sq m) site currently employs about 60 people, but the firm said there could be the potential for another 40 roles.

Mr Kelly said he believed there was no other facility in the world that could produce the glass products using "such a wide range of sustainable fuel sources, including electric melting".

Glass Futures is a not-for-profit company that has received funding from central government.

Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, pressed the button to light the furnace earlier.

He said the launch showed St Helens was "again at the cutting edge of global innovation" after boasting nearly two centuries of industrial heritage.

Google A large grey building with a glass frontage is set behind grass and a tree. There is blue signage which reads Glass Futures. A woman in in the foreground walking along with a shopping bag.Google
Glass Futures said the trials into creating lower-carbon glass are "world leading"

David Baines, MP for St Helens North, said it was "a milestone moment" for the borough, which had a 250-year history of glass research and manufacturing.

Marie Rimmer, MP for St Helens South and Whiston, described it as "a hugely exciting moment" for the town and a "huge step forward towards a sustainable future".

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