Open technology laureate for ‘UPCAST GLASS: Upcycling waste glass by casting’

Glass recycling provides opportunities for recovering materials and reducing production energy demand, but most non-container glass is currently down-cycled or landfilled at end-of-life, because glass production processes cannot accommodate the contamination and compositional variations of waste glass streams.

The research project UPCAST GLASS addresses this by exploring a novel casting process for recycled glass that accommodates recipe variations and contaminants from a broad range of waste glass streams, by developing new methods for assessing the influence of defects in the engineered recycled glass components and by providing a database of material properties and design guidelines for recycling waste glass into high-value products. To achieve these goals, the research team will conduct systematic prototyping, material characterization and mechanical testing at the TU Delft laboratory facilities of BK and CiTG, and will work closely with key recycling organizations, glass manufacturers and engineering offices.

The Open Technology Programme is open to excellent research aimed at the possible implementation of the results. The programme offers companies and other organisations an easily accessible way of becoming involved in scientific research that leads to usable knowledge.

The board of NWO Domain Applied and Engineering Sciences awards funding to seven research projects through the Open Technology Programme. One of the projects is UPCAST GLASS: Upcycling waste glass by casting,

More information

• Researchers involved: prof. dr. M. Overend, dr. Faidra Oikonomopoulou and dr. Telesilla Bristogianni, from the AE+T Department, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology.
• The project will run for 4 years and will be supported by the TU Delft Glass Research Group, Vlakglasrecycling Nederland, Maltha Glass Recycling, Corning and EOC Engineers. Visit the webpage of the ReStruct Group.
• You can find more information about Open technology Programme here.
• Read the TU Delft news about other laureates of our university.