New technologies for sustainable and high-quality glass production
Achieving the German government's climate protection goals, in alignment with the European Green Deal and the collective responsibility to combat climate change, demands a transformative shift in energy-intensive, greenhouse gas-emitting industries. Among these, the glass industry must focus not only on COâ‚‚-free glass melting, for example, through the substitution of fossil fuels with green hydrogen but also should substitute carbonate raw materials.
The technological transformation, while maintaining the highest product quality, requires a deeper understanding of the complex thermodynamic and thermochemical processes involved. Achieving this requires advanced, application-oriented, and reliable computational tools that are experimentally validated, and implemented.
The QualiGlas research, funded by Saxony and the European Social Fund, addresses this challenge by training the next generation of scientists. These researchers are equipped to develop and apply cutting-edge tools tailored for the glass industry in Saxony. The initiative combines experimental insights with practical training to ensure future professionals can drive the sustainable transformation of glass production.
An exciting highlight of this year’s QualiGlas Symposium will be the exploration of artificial intelligence (AI) integration into sustainable glass production processes. AI offers transformative potential, from optimizing energy efficiency and predicting thermochemical reactions to real-time monitoring and quality assurance. Through expert talks, presentations and in-depth discussions, the symposium will provide a platform for exploring AI-driven tools and their role in revolutionizing the CO₂-free glass melting processes as well as accelerating the adoption of green technologies in the glass industry. This focus highlights the commitment of the QualiGlas initiative to leverage cutting-edge innovations to achieve sustainability without compromising on product quality.
The QualiGlas Symposium aims to strengthen collaboration and knowledge exchange between the research group, TU Bergakademie Freiberg’s affiliated institutes, industry partners, and external researcher. The program includes expert presentations, poster sessions, and brief talks where early-career researchers will showcase their findings.
Join us in shaping the future of sustainable glass production while networking with leading minds in the field.
Program
| Thursday, 5. June 2025 | |
| 08:30 – 08:50 | ARRIVAL |
| 08:50 – 09:00 | Welcome Jun.-Prof. Sindy Fuhrmann and Prof. Andreas Richter, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany |
| 09:00 – 09:30 | Hydrogen in the Firing of Glass Melting Furnaces – Operating Conditions and Effects on the System Dr. S. Eckart, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany |
| 09:30 – 10:00 | NN L. Wondraczek, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany |
| 10:00 – 10:30 | COFFEE BREAK |
| 10:30 – 11:00 | Scientific Machine Learning Across Scales for Glass and Glass Structures M. Kraus, TU Darmstadt, Germany |
| 11:00 – 11:30 | Towards a Bayesian Neural Network Approach for Predicting Silicate Melt Viscosity and Estimating Uncertainty Dr. K. Itano, Akita University, Japan |
| 11:30 – 13:00 | LUNCH BREAK OPTIONAL 12:00: Tour ZeHS & Institute of Glass Science and Technology |
| 13:00 – 13:30 | Low-temperature Synthesis of Layered Transition Metal Oxides for Improving Materials Performance Prof. K. Saito, Akita University, Japan |
| 13:30 – 13:45 | Hydrogen Influence on the Structure of Green Container Glass. Y. Yuan, Young reasercher for QualiGlass, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany |
| 13:45 -14:00 | Detailed Modeling of Hydrogen and Natural Gas Oxy-Fuel Combustion for Glass Furnaces L. Etzold, Young reasercher for QualiGlass, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany |
| 14:00 – 14:15 | Strategies for Modeling Turbulent Hydrogen Flames in Future Glass Furnaces G. Gonzalez, Young reasercher for QualiGlass, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany |
| 14:15 – 15:00 | COFFEE BREAK & POSTER SESSION |
| 15:00 – 15:15 | Innovative Glass Melting Using All-Electric and Microwave Heating R. Schaarschmidt, Young reasercher for QualiGlass, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany |
| 15:15 -15:30 | High-resolved CFD-modeling of a microwave plasma torch – a numerical and experimental investigation. S. Rodmacher, Young reasercher for QualiGlass, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany |
| 15:30 – 15:45 | Plasma Flame Generation Using Conditional Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) : A Generative AI Approach F. H. Maleki, Young reasercher for QualiGlass, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany |
| 15:45 -16:00 | Closing discussion |
