Submerged Combustion Melting of Glass

Abstract

Advances in tank melter, refractory, controls, and heat source technology have paralleled progress in glass chemistry, quality, and production scale for decades. These same advances have also led to a revival of the 75-year-old concept of bottom heating for glass melting. To create high-intensity heat transfer and rapid melt homogenization, bottom heating, or submerged combustion melting, uses forced convection and direct contact heat transfer. The work of European, American, and Ukranian scientists has demonstrated that bottom heating offers energy savings, emissions reductions, and cost savings relative to conventional melting. Recent work by the Gas Technology Institute of the United States, in partnership with a consortium of glass companies, has advanced the bottom heating technology for a number of glass products to the brink of commercialization. With ongoing work a practical, rapid refining process could be developed to enable bottom melting as an alternative melting approach for a broad range of commercial glasses.

Prospects and physical limits of processes and technologies in glass melting

“…• submerged combustion technology (SCM) [28][29][30][31]; • batch inflight technology [32]; • centrifugal fining [33,34]; • vacuum fining; based on a 1926 patent by ASAHI Co; recent patent, e.g. [35].…”

Advancing glasses through fundamental research

“…Finally, we note in Table 1 that sustainability is another important aspect driving advances in glass technology. Examples include the development of new glasses without any toxic species (e.g., as fining agents 16 ), recycling and immobilization of waste 17 , and new processing techniques that may save energy 18 . It is thus apparent that research can be classified into three categories:…”

Assessment strategies for mixing in very viscous gas-liquid two-phase flows

“…The GINASU team set a melt pool depth between 0.7 and 1.5 m to optimize heat transfer and to promote homogenization (Rue & Brown, 2011). The melt chamber had a rectangular design 1.1a, with the batch charged at one end and the melt discharged at the other.…”

“…However, an initial effort to sell this technology to the mineral wool industry in the US proved futile. This technology was rejected by the industry on three counts (Rue & Brown, 2011);…”

“…Since physically testing the effects these parameters would be prohibitively difficult and expensive, the aid of CFD is sought. A three phase Fluent CFD code, was developed jointly by the FLUENT, Inc. and the consortium companies (Rue & Brown, 2011). The code must successfully handle a complex three phase flow, resolve the time scales associated with fast gas plumes, the chemistry associated with the process, and some relatively slower process like the convective mixing and the frozen layer interactions near the wall.…”