A vertical shaft melting furnace wherein meltable solids are charged to the upper region of a bed supported only by a fluid cooled support grid having openings smaller than the average diameter of the charged solids wherein submerged combustion is maintained in a melt pool below the bed of solids and combustion product gases of the submerged combustion are passed upwardly through the bed of solids preheating and melting a substantial portion of the solids forming melt which flows downwardly into the melt pool and partially melting the remaining portion of the solids reducing their size sufficiently to pass through the support grid openings into the melt pool. The apparatus and process of this invention provides improved melt quality with stable temperature and high homegeneity with increased specific production rate and increased unit production rate.

Vertical shaft melting furnace and method of melting

Glass batch materials and the like are liquefied in a first stage and the liquefied materials are subjected to submerged combustion in a second stage.

Melting of glass with staged submerged combustion

Molten material is heated by submerged combustion of hydrogen with oxygen so that the product of combustion injected into the melt is low in volume and consists essentially of water vapor which is relatively soluble in a material such as molten glass. Preferred embodiments involve liquefying the batch materials in a first stage and subjecting the liquefied materials to submerged combustion in a second stage.

Submerged oxygen-hydrogen combustion melting of glass

Submerged combustion systems and methods of use to produce glass. One system includes a submerged combustion melter having a roof, a floor, a wall structure connecting the roof and floor, and an outlet, the melter producing an initial foamy molten glass. One or more non-submerged auxiliary burners are positioned in the roof and/or wall structure and configured to deliver combustion products to impact at least a portion of the bubbles with sufficient force and/or heat to burst at least some of the bubbles and form a reduced foam molten glass.

Systems and methods for glass manufacturing

Submerged combustion glass manufacturing systems include a melter having a floor, a roof, a wall structure connecting the floor and roof, and an exhaust passage through the roof. One or more submerged combustion burners are mounted in the floor and/or wall structure discharging combustion products under a level of material being melted in the melter and create turbulent conditions in the material. The melter exhausts through an exhaust structure connecting the exhaust passage with an exhaust stack. The exhaust structure includes a barrier defining an exhaust chamber having an interior surface, the exhaust chamber having a cross-sectional area greater than that of the exhaust stack but less than the melter. The barrier maintains temperature and pressure in the exhaust structure at values sufficient to substantially prevent condensation of exhaust material on the interior surface.

Submerged combustion glass manufacturing system and method

An improved process for pre-treating and melting glassmaking materials wherein, in a preferred embodiment, the glass batch is compacted or agglomerated into distinct units, preheated and then conveyed into a glass furnace or melter. The glass batch preferably is compacted into briquets using an improved process, and the glass batch is preheated with the combustion gases from the glass furnace in a fashion such that particular matter, particularly sodium sulfate, is removed from the combustion gases. Melting preferably is accomplished using a submerged combustion process.

Fejer M

Papers

Process for pre-treating and melting glassmaking materials