News

At the Innovation Day, held on 16 September by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, the National Institute of Chemistry and Steklarna Hrastnik received the Golden Award for Best Innovations 2025.

The award was granted for the innovation BEAR – a breakthrough in green glassmaking, representing an important step towards sustainable development and the reduction of the environmental footprint of the glass industry. The first hybrid regenerative furnace combines electric heating with traditional gas heating. This enables the share of electricity in the melting process to increase to more than 40 percent, resulting in over a 50 percent reduction in natural gas consumption and a 33 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The project is the result of successful collaboration between researchers of the National Institute of Chemistry and the development teams at Steklarna Hrastnik.

At the event, ten Golden Awards, one special award for the innovation challenge, as well as several Silver and Bronze Awards were presented.

^{Photo: Tadej Kreft}