CO2 emission from container glass in China, and emission reduction strategy analysis.

Glass is one of the materials most extensively used for packaging. Its manufacturing process is typically energy intensive, with a large quantity of CO₂ emissions. In this study, the material and energy consumptioninventory of the manufacturing stage were quantified and CO₂ emissions from the glass manufacturing process were calculated. When fuel oil, coal or natural gas is used as the major energy source in the production system, it produces CO₂ emissions of 1.2798, 0.6250 and 0.4498 t/t, respectively. CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel combustion account for 67.79% of the total emissions and a huge potential exists for emission reduction. Due to differences in energy structure, current research results cannot represent the emissions in China; therefore, six scenarios were created to explore the CO₂ emission reduction potential of the glass industry with different energy structures, and six scenarios were created to explore the cost from the adjustment of the energy structure. According to the analysis of the glass furnace, the effective heat accounts for 35.31%, so the basic approach for energy saving and emission reduction is to enhance the effective heat quantity of the glass furnace. Also, energy and virgin feedstock savings were calculated for 1 t of glass container production with different recycling levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]