German industrial gases producer Messer and BLRT Grupp, its partner in the joint venture Elme Messer Gaas, have officially commissioned their new €5m oxygen plant in Järvakandi, Estonia.

The facility on the site owned by customer Owens-Illinois, which claims to be the world’s leading manufacturer of container glass, has been on stream since December 2014. It has to produce 650 m³/h of oxygen that will supply the company’s new glass trough.

“The commissioning of the new oxygen production plant is an important step not only for us, but also for our Estonian joint venture. The investment is a flexible response to the changing needs of our customers,” said Stefan Messer, owner and CEO of the Messer Group.

 Messer’s process, in which oxygen is fed in gaseous form through a pipeline directly to the burners of the glass trough, reduces both natural gas consumption as well as carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions and makes a significant contribution toward meeting the company’s sustainability goals,” said Viivika Remmel, Owen-Illinois country group executive for northeast Europe.