Nihon Yamamura Glass to trial ammonia fuel for glass manufacturing
By on September 30, 2025
Click to learn more. Graphic visualisation of a 100% ammonia-fueled, soda lime glass furnace developed by Nihon Yamamura and Tokyo Gas. Source: Nihon Yamamura Glass.
Japanese glass bottle manufacturer Nihon Yamamura Glass and the University of Osaka will embark on a research project to substitute city gas fuel for ammonia fuel in glass manufacturing. The industrial research will build on a series of R&D collaborations between Nihon Yamamura, the University of Osaka, and Tokyo Gas, which have assessed the impacts of ammonia fuel combustion on glass quality.
The extreme temperatures in glass furnaces (1,400-plus °C) make ammonia fuel combustion challenging due to the formation of NOX pollutants, but University of Osaka researchers have already been trailing a two-stage combustion burner designed by Tokyo Gas. The two-stage process controls air supply and limits NOX emissions:
In the first stage, air, oxygen and ammonia are burned together, while in the second stage the air and oxygen are preheated to 450°C before being introduced. This preheating helps maintain combustion temperature, prevents unburned fuel, and reduces NOX formation.
Details of the two-stage ammonia combustion process, “Ammonia tested as clean fuel in Japanese glass furnaces” (Gasworld 19 Sept 2025)
However, the two-stage process impacted glass quality in multiple lab research trials, including discoloration of glass directly below the burner combustion site, and presence of air bubbles from NOX formation. The new project aims to overcome these issues, and step up the scale of these trials from the lab bench to industrial demos and practical applications. The global glass manufacturing sector accounts for 100 million tons of CO2 each year (nearly one-fifth of the emissions produced by global ammonia production).
If we can establish ammonia combustion technology through this research, then, combined with the results of our group company using hydrogen fuel we will be able to choose between ammonia and hydrogen depending on the conditions.
By announcing the results of this research, we would like to gather opinions from those with other perspectives, such as the glass industry and industries working on decarbonisation technologies.
Hashira Yamamoto, Manager Nihon Yamamura Glass Environmental Affairs Department, quoted in Gasworld, 19 Sept 2025
In 2023, Nihon Yamamura, Kansai Electric Power, Tokyo Gas, and the University of Osaka first partnered to develop combustion burner technology for 100% ammonia fuel in soda lime glass furnaces.