Erik Muijsenberg
Erik Muijsenberg graduated as a Mechanical Engineer from the University of Eindhoven (1990). He worked for TNO, Eindhoven, for 8 years, focusing on furnace modeling and glass melting technology, becoming Glass Department leader. He next became Managing Director of GLASS SERVICE B.V., firstly in Maastricht, Netherlands later moving to its headquarters in the Czech Republic as Vice President. Glass Service employs over 100 engineers with offices worldwide.
In 1997, with former TNO colleagues, he received the Otto Schott Award and in 2012 the German Glass Society Adolf Dietzel Industry Award for work on glass furnace modeling & optimization. He became a Fellow of the UK Society of Glass Technology in 2014.He is vice Chairman and a past Chairmen of ICG Technical Committee 21. In 2016 he joined ICG’s Steering Committee. In 2017 he became a Phoenix Award Committee member and has been selected as next Vice Chair and future Chair.
Day - 2 14 Dec
Furnace of the future
With the realities of global warming and plans for CO2 reduction, the interest in alternative furnace designs such as hybrid electric melting is getting more attention. The generation of electricity by renewable energy sources is, of course, a great help as it brings costs of electricity finally down and will be CO2 free. In Europe the average generation of electricity by renewable resources is already above 40% coming from wind, solar, hydro and bio. Electricity storage however is complex and expensive, while transporting energy in the form of a gas via pipes is cheaper than via electric wires. An alternative renewable energy carrier is hydrogen. Hydrogen can be generated via electrolysis using electricity: this conversion, however, is only in the effective range of 65%. After this, hydrogen can be burned in a glass melting furnace with a typical efficiency of 50%. This paper will present Glass Service a.s. (GS) thermal efficiency studies showing if the future will be more likely using electric heating or hydrogen combustion. Results of mathematical modeling show the efficiency of the different technologies. What will be the furnace design of the future?