Professor Paul Bingham Archives

Saica site visit

Saica site visit

TransFIRe members paid a visit to Saica Paper this week to find out about their operations and to look for potential collaborative opportunities. Saica are a leading manufacturer of high-performance and 100% recycled papers for corrugated cardboard in Europe and the US. During the visit, Sanjoo Paddea gave a talk on the overall TransFIRe project, Natanael Bolson gave some insights on resource flows for the paper industry, Dr Lampros Litos MIET talked about waste valorisation and Simon Curling talked about his work on coatings for paper packaging with Wipak and re-pulping with Pulpex and others. As part of the presentations, TransFIRe highlighted that best practices in the paper industry could reduce the carbon footprint and energy emissions by up to 50% and we hope to be able to help identify ways in which Saica can move towards this.

Joanna Johnson2023-12-08T12:04:06+00:00December 8th, 2023|

Investigation into the composition of commercial glass reveals energy saving potential

TransFIRe researchers from the Sheffield Hallam University have been investigating the composition of commercial glass currently present in the UK market following a lack of recent research and data on the subject. The study involved sampling and analysing the compositions of over 30 commercial container and float glass samples from the UK market and found a number of different properties within the glass that could bring about significant potential for energy saving in its production. Based on the results obtained from the compositional analysis, the performance of these commercial glasses was evaluated using multiple analysis methods and property models. These analyses reveal that glasses of the same colour and function exhibit different properties, with a difference in the estimated melting temperature (Log 2 viscosity) of over 20 degrees Celsius in some cases. Fig.1 Melting temperature difference between current UK container glasses: 21oC. At present, there is a [...]

Joanna Johnson2023-07-25T14:11:27+00:00July 25th, 2023|

Investigating alternative uses for Spent Foundry Sand

After an extensive literature review by TransFIRe researchers, a number of potential applications for re-using huge quantities of Spent Foundry Sand (SFS) have been identified. As part of Work Stream 2 of the TransFIRe project, which focusses on creating new materials and process opportunities for the foundation industries, TransFIRe researchers have been undertaking a case study focussing on potential uses of Spent Foundry Sand (SFS), a waste product of UK metals foundries leftover after the production of sand moulds or cores for casting of metals. A literature review, carried out with input from the Cast Metals Federation, John Winter Ltd and Wm Lee Ltd, was undertaken to identify potential opportunities for re-using SFS and several applications were identified within ceramics, glass, cement, fillers in concrete and asphalt; and several others. Although SFS can be successfully recycled and used numerous times, the sand grains eventually degrade and their ability to [...]

Joanna Johnson2023-05-15T08:44:48+00:00May 15th, 2023|