Bacardi, the well-known beverage company recently formed a partnership with Hrastnik1860, a company who produces glass. This partnership opened the door for Bacardi to successfully manufacture 150,000 glass bottles, through using a furnace which was fuelled by 60% hydrogen.

The bottle which has now been commercially produced in this innovative way, is the ST GERMAIN® elderflower liqueur 70cl. There are multiple factors within this production process that highlight this excellent new practise as environmentally friendly and a much better system, which could revolutionise the glass bottle industry.

On top of the use of the hydrogen within the furnace being a much greener and more efficient practise, Bacardi has stated that the hydrogen being used in the furnace is also very green itself, as it is produced through the process of electrolysis.

So far, the results of this trial have been very positive, as not only has the production of bottles been successful, but also the bottles that have been produced in this process are identical to the bottles manufactured in the regular way. Plus, along with this news about the bottle’s appearances, it is reported that the innovative process also reduces the amount of greenhouse gas emissions by 30%. Therefore, altogether, this new process has so far seen excellent success and is also incredibly beneficial to the environment and the industry.

The next steps for this plan will be to make the beverage available in the new bottles in bars and stores, within the near future. Bacardi has mentioned that this project has created hopes for the company, that this success will begin a trend within the industry in which other businesses begin producing bottles in the same way. The aim in this instance would be for hydrogen-fuelled glass production to become a regular practise within the industry, which eventually replaces the current regular process.

The Vice-President, Safety, Quality and Sustainability for Bacardi, Rodolfo Nervi, commented, “We will take the learnings from this trial to help share a pathway to a hydrogen-fuelled glass production and create a blueprint for others to follow. It’s only through change as an industry that we can bring significant change to our impact on the environment.”

The CEO of Hrastnik1860, Peter Čas, mentioned, “Successfully producing lower emission, premium glass bottles at a commercial scale, with absolutely no compromise on quality, has made all the hard work worthwhile…  This revolutionary technology proves the two can go hand in hand and we are now taking the first steps in bringing it to market.”