The total oxygen combustion method uses only oxygen for fuel combustion in glass manufacturing. This method improves energy efficiency and also greatly reduces NOx emissions because it does not heat nitrogen in the air, which is not necessary for combustion. The total oxygen combustion using Hot-oxy is an upgraded version. This method improves energy efficiency by preheating oxygen that will be used in combustion by using the heat trapped in the exhaust gas released from glass furnaces. Compared with using a conventional furnace, the energy efficiency can be calculated for an improvement of as much as 19% under the total oxygen combustion method, and by 27% with Hot-oxy. Total oxygen combustion is employed in Asahi Glass Keihin Plant and in China, while Hot-Oxy is employed at plants in France.

*4 2006 data source: Flat Glass Manufacturers Association of Japan

Improving the thermal insulation performance of houses to save energy is an effective and low-cost way to reduce CO₂ emissions, and its technical practicability is high. Replacing with high thermal insulation windows for households is one way to do so. If the window glass of all houses in Japan was replaced with Ecoglass, the 166 million tons of CO₂ emissions from households could be decreased by 10.4%.*4 The usage of Ecoglass in Japan reached 34% for new detached houses and 9% for new apartment houses in fiscal 2008. However, the total usage rate for existing and new houses is still far lower in Japan than in the EU countries and the United States. Asahi Glass is promoting "PairPlus" which is a kind of Ecoglass designed for remodeling existing houses.
In China where economic development is booming, we manufacture and sell high heat shielding glass and conduct educational activities at exhibitions in order to contribute to energy saving in offices and houses. We have also established manufacturing capability in Indonesia.