O-I Glass injects €95M in French glass production facilities with GOAT technology

26 Feb 2024 --- Owens-Illinois Glass (O-I Glass) is investing €95 million (US$103 million) into two of its French glass packaging production facilities. The investments aim to upgrade the sustainability, flexibility and productivity of the company’s operations in Gironcourt-sur-Vraine and Reims.

In Gironcourt, €55 million (US$60 million) will be invested in cooperation with one of O-I’s key customers to rebuild a furnace and equip it with innovative GOAT technology (Gas Oxy Advanced Technology). 

The company’s approach — successfully implemented last year at the O-I plant in Vayres — uses a mix of gas and oxygen to heat the furnace. Combined with a newly installed heat recovery system to pre-heat raw materials and recycled glass, the installation is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 18%.

Walter Ferrer, O-I’s managing director for Southwest Europe, comments: “These significant investments are in line with the global approach adopted by O-I to reinforce our commitment to sustainable development, increase the energy efficiency of our equipment, create more resilient supply chains and constantly seek to improve the working conditions of our teams.”

Beer market supply
In addition to the furnace upgrade, a production line at the plant will be modernized to increase flexibility and capacity. Approximately 80% of the plant’s raw materials consist of scrap and locally recycled glass, underlining the circular and local nature of glass packaging.

O-I Glass’ plant in Gironcourt (Image credit: O-I Glass).Most of the glass bottles produced in Gironcourt are supplied to customers by rail, reducing the number of trucks weekly by about 250. The new expenditure into Gironcourt will increase the total investment into the site to almost €120 million (US$130 million) since 2019, when O-I established a third furnace in Gironcourt. The plant produces approximately 1.9 billion bottles annually, primarily for the beer market.

In Reims, O-I completed a €40 million (US$43 million) investment in a plant upgrade, including the full renovation of one of the plant’s two furnaces and a production line and the installation of new equipment. Besides operational benefits, the upgrade also resulted in an overall energy reduction of about 5%.

O-I has invested €90 million (US$97 million) into the Reims site since 2019, when its other furnace was rebuilt.

Serving French customers
The Reims plant is a model for O-I’s overall sustainability efforts. An average of about 90% of its raw material comprises scrap and locally recycled glass (cullet). The high cullet rate is a major contributor in reducing the plant’s CO2 emissions by about 60% and fine particle emissions by about 80%, explains the company. Since the 2019 investment, waste heat from glass packaging production has been recovered to be used in domestic homes in the local community.

The O-I plant in Reims is located in the Champagne, minimizing delivery routes and time to the wineries. The plant delivers champagne bottles to nearby customers with trucks powered by grapeseed and fryer oil, resulting in about a 60% CO2 emission reduction compared to diesel fuel and about 80% less fine particle emissions.

The plant serves a diverse customer base serving more than 1,000 customers in France. It can produce bottles in three colors and in sizes ranging from 0.2 L to Magnum bottles. The plant produces 300 million bottles yearly for the Champagne, Burgundy, Loire Valley and Alsace markets. 

Edited by Natalie Schwertheim