Bormioli Luigi teams up with Penn State to scale sustainable glass for cosmetic packaging

16 Sep 2024 --- Bormioli Luigi is working with researchers at Penn State, US, to scale and market Lion Glass, an eco-friendly alternative to standard soda lime silicate glass. 

The Italian glassmaker, which specializes in producing luxury packaging for fragrances, cosmetics and tableware, is Penn State’s first company to research and develop glass with an aim to scale, manufacture and commercialize it.

“This is an enormous opportunity to work with this material and create a more sustainable glass with far less CO2 emissions and energy consumption than standard glass,” says Elisa Biavardi, the chemical laboratory manager for Bormioli Luigi. 

“I see it also as an opportunity to learn from one another as we explore the possibilities for this major innovation in glassmaking.”

The team will be looking at scaling Lion Glass to create bottles for luxury beauty products like cosmetics and perfume.

New glass category

According to Penn State, Lion Glass is a brand-new glass type that provides the first substitute for soda lime silicate glass, which has been around for millennia and used for everything from microscope slides to windows.

The partnership will focus on scaling up Lion Glass to create bottles for luxury beauty products like cosmetics and perfume.The carbon-based components of soda ash and limestone are melted with quartz sand at high melting temperatures of approximately 1,450 °C to create soda lime silicate glass. High energy is required in this process — 70% to 80% of its carbon footprint, while 20% to 30% comes from decomposition of its carbonate batch materials that release CO2.

Penn State warns glass manufacturing produces over 86 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.

On the other hand, Lion Glass does not need carbonate batch materials and has a melting temperature around 400 °C lower than other everyday glass products, enabling it to cut the carbon footprint of glass manufacturing in half, says John Mauro, the Dorothy Pate Enright professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State and co-inventor of Lion Glass.

He adds that Lion Glass improves damage resistance compared to soda lime silicate glass and is ten times more crack-resistant. This could be an advantage for lightweight glass products, which can further lower carbon footprint as they would be lighter to transport.

Pleased partners

Up until now, crucibles — small, pot-shaped containers used to melt glass at high furnace temperatures — have been used in laboratory settings to create Lion Glass. 

However, to industrially scale it, the glass has to be melted in large batches inside furnaces and formed using molds, which have not yet been tested.

“We’re thrilled to have this close partnership with Bormioli to realize the full potential of Lion Glass to reshape the industry,” Mauro comments. “Bormioli is building upon a long history of innovation in glass manufacturing by moving toward methods that are more environmentally sustainable. We have very close alignment of our goals and look forward to partnering with them to bridge the gap toward commercialization.”

Nicholas Clark, a postdoctoral fellow at Penn State and one of the inventors of Lion Glass, adds: “This all started as just an idea in our lab, and now we’re partnering with companies to bring it out into the world. We’re translating what we’re learning from the laboratory-scale, crucible melting that we’re doing here at Penn State to a much larger scale of continuous glass production that’s being done at Bormioli. It’s exciting for our work to be this close to a major industrial innovation.”

Biavardi highlights that the Bormioli Luigi Group is transitioning to 100% renewable energy and currently uses electricity for 65% of its production.

Andrew Read, senior vice president for research at Penn State, says, “By marrying the creative spirit of discovery and innovation that Penn State is known for with the product development expertise of a highly respected corporate partner, we can create a consumer product that is not only superior in durability but also lowers carbon emissions to help protect our planet from the effects of climate change. We are proud to partner with Bormioli and look forward to breaking new ground through this unique collaboration.”

Penn State has submitted a second provisional patent application for an upgraded version of Lion Glass.