Posted on 08/15/2023 11:38:02 AM PDT by Red Badger
A sample of LionGlass, a new type of glass engineered by researchers at Penn State that requires significantly less energy to produce and is much more damage resistant than standard soda lime silicate glass. Credit: Adrienne Berard/Penn State
Globally, glass manufacturing emits at least 86 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. However, a new type of glass called LionGlass, developed by Penn State researchers, offers the potential to reduce this carbon output by 50%. Not only does this innovative glass demand considerably less energy for production, but it also boasts greater resistance to damage compared to conventional soda lime silicate glass. The scientists behind this breakthrough have recently submitted a patent application, marking the initial move towards introducing LionGlass to the market.
“Our goal is to make glass manufacturing sustainable for the long term,” said John Mauro, Dorothy Pate Enright Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State and lead researcher on the project. “LionGlass eliminates the use of carbon-containing batch materials and significantly lowers the melting temperature of glass.”
Soda lime silicate glass, the common glass used in everyday items from windows to glass tableware, is made by melting three primary materials: quartz sand, soda ash, and limestone. Soda ash is sodium carbonate and limestone is calcium carbonate, both of which release carbon dioxide (CO2), a heat-trapping greenhouse gas, as they are melted.
“During the glass melting process, the carbonates decompose into oxides and produce carbon dioxide, which gets released into the atmosphere,” Mauro said.
But the bulk of the CO2 emissions come from the energy required to heat furnaces to the high temperatures needed for melting glass. With LionGlass, the melting temperatures are lowered by about 300 to 400 degrees Celsius, Mauro explained, which leads to a roughly 30% reduction in energy consumption compared to conventional soda lime glass.
Not only is LionGlass easier on the environment, but it’s also much stronger than conventional glass. The researchers said they were surprised to find that the new glass, named after Penn State’s Nittany Lion mascot, possesses significantly higher crack resistance compared to conventional glass.
Some of the team’s glass compositions had such a strong crack resistance that the glass would not crack, even under a one kilogram-force load from a Vickers diamond indenter. LionGlass is at least 10 times as crack-resistant compared to standard soda lime glass, which forms cracks under a load of about 0.1 kilograms force. The researchers explained that the limits of LionGlass have not yet been found, because they reached the maximum load allowed by the indentation equipment.
“We kept increasing the weight on LionGlass until we reached the maximum load the equipment will allow,” said Nick Clark, a postdoctoral fellow in Mauro’s lab. “It simply wouldn’t crack.” Mauro explained that crack resistance is one of the most important qualities to test for in glass because it is how the material eventually fails. Over time, glass develops microcracks along the surface, which become weak points. When a piece of glass breaks, it’s due to weaknesses caused by existing microcracks. Glass that is resistant to forming microcracks in the first place is especially valuable, he added.
“Damage resistance is a particularly important property for glass,” Mauro said. “Think about all the ways we rely on the strength of glass, in the automotive industry and electronics industry, architecture, and communication technology like fiber optic cables. Even in health care, vaccines are stored in strong, chemically resistant glass packaging.”
Mauro is hoping that the improved strength of LionGlass means the products created from it can be lighter weight. Since LionGlass is 10 times more damage resistant than current glass, it could be significantly thinner.
“We should be able to reduce the thickness and still get the same level of damage resistance,” Mauro said. “If we have a lighter-weight product, that is even better for the environment, because we use less raw materials and need less energy to produce it. Even downstream, for transportation, that reduces the energy required to transport the glass, so it’s a winning situation for everyone.”
Mauro notes that the research team is still evaluating the potential of LionGlass. They have filed a patent application for the entire family of glass, which means there are many compositions within the LionGlass family, each with its own distinct properties and potential applications. They are now in the process of exposing various compositions of LionGlass to an array of chemical environments to study how it reacts. The results will help the team develop a better understanding of how LionGlass can be used throughout the world.
“Humans learned how to manufacture glass more than 5,000 years ago and since then it has been critical to bringing modern civilization to where it is today,” Mauro said. “Now, we are at a point in time when we need it to help shape the future, as we face global challenges such as environmental issues, renewable energy, energy efficiency, health care, and urban development. Glass can play a vital role in solving these issues, and we are ready to contribute.”
Suppose the company will wave patent rights? You know, to save the earth.
Ceramics is the basic use of inorganic oxide materials which can be combined in thousands of different useful ways. Within that framework, glasses are materials that can be smelted together into a fluid whose viscosity upon cooling becomes so great that it cannot crystallize, but achieves such a high value as to be practically considered as being a solid.
My doctoral thesis was titled "The Vibrational Spectra of High-Purity and Chemically-Substituted Vitreous Silica," submitted fifty years ago.
Mauro, the chief innovator of the "LION" glass was an illustrious inventor at Corning Glass, became chief editor of JACS, and has been appointed to the faculty of Penn State in its renowned school of Ceramics. Do not doubt that the LI in "Lion" refers to the lithium content that replaces the sodium in the glass. Corning, of course, has the century-long history of high-temperature commercial glasses, especially Pyrex and Vycor. Vycor is approximately 96% silica and 4% boron trioxide, but unlike pure fused silica, it can be readily manufactured in a variety of shapes.
The cost of a new class of material in full commercial production is hard to predict in the earliest stages of development. Lower energy cost is a promising start though. My guess is that the key is adding a relatively cheap new compound into the glass making process, which is why the press release is so sparse on the details. Their best strategy is to get the first round of patents and quickly refine the production process with a commercial partner that has the cash and international political and legal heft to defend the IP involved.
“named after Penn State’s Nittany Lion mascot”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.