South Africa’s state-of-the-art new glass facility
The R1.5 billion extension of Ardagh Glass Packaging – South Africa’s (AGP – South Africa’s) Nigel operations in Gauteng has been completed and is producing glass containers.
The investment more than doubles the facility’s capacity to provide sustainable glass packaging to support our customers’ current and projected demand growth and incorporates a new furnace and production lines. It also provides significant energy, water efficiency and environmental benefits towards decarbonising the glass production process and reducing emissions.
The 2022 extension has:
- More than doubled the capacity of the existing Nigel plant.
- Added around 10% to AGP – South Africa’s overall production capacity.
- Created more than 150 direct jobs.
- Increased the Nigel facility’s production area by 24 400m2, and warehousing area by 24 000m2.
- Added four new production lines to the current four lines at Nigel.
Sustainability
- The investment includes an electrostatic precipitator (ESP), which substantially reduces particulate emissions. AGP – South Africa has a similar ESP in its Bellville facility in Cape Town. The new furnace was designed to be as energy efficient as possible. A low-pressure air-compression system (used to form glass containers from molten glass) improves energy efficiency by as much as 20%.
Technology
- Sophisticated model-predictive controls allow finer control and better response to changes in the glass-making process.
- The new furnace uses natural gas as its primary energy source. It can draw on a secondary electric boost, which allows for the production of better-quality glass.
- The expansion will include an off-line additional applied-ceramic-label decoration line with two screen-printing machines.
Recycling
- Glass is 100% recyclable, and the use of cullet (recycled glass) in the glass-manufacturing process is key to reducing waste and energy usage.
- Nigel’s furnaces can run on up to 90% cullet, depending on the colour run in the furnace and the availability of cullet which is collected from the market, and used as the primary melted raw material.
- Furnace recycling rates will vary depending on the colour produced in the furnace at any one time and the availability of post-consumer or post-industrial cullet.
- These furnaces can produce flint (clear), amber and green glass.
- The newly built furnace will likely run-on lower recycling rates as it will primarily produce flint glass, which is less available for collection in the South African market.
In late 2022 a third furnace investment in the Nigel facility was announced for commissioning in 2023. This expansion will be a replica of the expansion completed in 2022 and will similarly incorporate a new furnace and additional production lines. It will also provide significant energy, water efficiency and environmental benefits, representing another important step in AGP – Africa’s journey to decarbonise the glass production process and reduce emissions.
Leveraging Ardagh Group’s technical capabilities and global sourcing, the expansion is expected to be commissioned well ahead of current standard lead times. The investment, which is backed by long-term customer contracts, is in line with Ardagh’s commitment at the time of acquisition to invest in the growth of the South African glass industry.
Following completion, the Nigel production facility will be the largest glass container production facility in the AGP – Africa network, and on the African continent.
Committed teams drive Ethiopia’s return to production
Shutting down a working glass furnace and factory is not a decision to be taken lightly. Glass manufacture is a continuous process producing a constant stream of molten glass, and furnace investments require ongoing production and sale of glass products over a 10-to-12-year life cycle.
Shutdowns are rare occurrences and require delicate operational management to avoid severe damage to the integrity of the furnace and the useful life of the asset.
A furnace shutdown might occasionally become necessary due to exceptional conditions. This could be due to a technical issue, an interruption in the supply of raw materials, or, as was the case in Ethiopia in 2021, a civil war.
Ardagh’s Ethiopian facility was commissioned in August 2019 with the capacity to produce 60 000 tons of glass annually for the local and export markets. In November 2020, what became known as the Tigray War erupted in northern Ethiopia. As the conflict spread over the next year, Ardagh management carefully monitored the situation to keep people and plant safe.
By November 2021 the conflict area had encroached within 100 km of our glass factory and the decision was made to suspend operations and evacuate our most important assets, our people. This had to be done quickly, safely, and ideally in a way that would cause the least possible damage to plant and equipment.
Our technical partners, alongside Ardagh experts in South Africa and a small team on the ground, were given the difficult task of managing the cooling down process and leaving the molten glass inside the furnace to slowly freeze.
In ideal circumstances, the cooling and extraction of molten glass would take place under the physical care of a specialist team. The molten glass would be carefully drained – at 1 300 °C, it’s effectively a controlled volcano – and the empty furnace would be cooled as gently as possible.
However, our technical partners were unable to physically travel to Ethiopia, and the project had to be coordinated remotely. The decision was taken to let the glass cool inside the furnace and remove it later. To make the eventual task of removing this glass easier, a frothing process was introduced to the molten glass. Bubbles were trapped inside the glass as it cooled, effectively making it softer for easier eventual extraction.
Since the glass and furnace materials cool and contract at differing rates, it was a delicate and technically difficult procedure which took several weeks to complete. Eventually, however, the cooldown was complete, and production was safely paused. Although most of the local team had been evacuated, committed employees stayed on to make sure our site was kept secure and our physical assets were not tampered with, destroyed or misappropriated.
By early 2022 the conflict had been contained to the north of the country. The process of removing the cooled glass and assessing the condition of the furnace could begin. Using first jackhammers and then hand chisels, Ardagh employees carefully removed the glass from inside the furnace and discovered that the furnace remained in good shape. The team’s careful cooldown had been a success. In a surprisingly short time it was ready to be reheated and accept raw materials again, and production resumed in March 2022.
It's difficult to overstate the ingenuity, fortitude and camaraderie that the Ardagh teams showed throughout this process. It took experience, expertise, commitment and a strong sense of collaboration to perform this consequential operation amid exceptionally difficult circumstances.
On 1 August 2022 we celebrated three years of commercial production in Ethiopia. It has been a tough but rewarding journey. Kudos to everyone in our Ethiopian team and Ardagh Glass Packaging – Africa for the support and commitment to ensuring the success of our Ethiopian operations.
Share this page