Glass-melting installation comprising two furnaces

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9611164-B2
Application number	US-53222908-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 19, 2008
Priority date	Mar 20, 2007
Publication date	Apr 4, 2017
Grant date	Apr 4, 2017

Abstract

The invention relates to a process and to an installation for preparing a final glass, comprising a main furnace with electrodes and/or overhead burners, which is fed with main batch materials generating a main molten glass, and a submerged-combustion auxiliary furnace, said auxiliary furnace being fed with auxiliary batch materials, the auxiliary molten glass feeding the main furnace toward its upstream end in the first third of its length, the auxiliary glass being substantially of the same composition as the main glass. The downstream zone of the main furnace is thus used to remove both gases coming from the main glass and gases coming from the auxiliary glass, in order to finish melting the batch stones and impurities contained in the auxiliary glass and to homogenize the two glass streams from their redox standpoint, when this is necessary.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for manufacturing a final glass product comprising:
producing an auxiliary molten glass by melting auxiliary batch materials in an auxiliary furnace having submerged burners,
feeding main batch materials comprising a powder or a cullet into a main furnace having electrodes or overhead burners, or both,
providing thermal energy in the auxiliary furnace with the submerged burners,
providing thermal energy in the main furnace, wherein more than 80% of the thermal energy provided in the main furnace is provided by electrodes and/or overhead burners,
melting said main batch materials in said main furnace to produce a molten glass bath in the main furnace,
feeding the auxiliary molten glass into an upstream portion of the main furnace, the upstream portion being in a first upstream third of a length of a surface of the molten glass bath in the main furnace, and
generating a final glass product from the auxiliary molten glass and main batch materials in the main furnace.

2. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein an operating time for generating a final glass product from the auxiliary molten glass and main batch materials in the main furnace is for a longer period of time than producing an auxiliary molten glass from auxiliary batch materials in an auxiliary furnace having submerged burners.

3. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein an output of auxiliary glass is 2% to 40% of an output of the final glass product.

4. The process as claimed in claim 3 , wherein an output of auxiliary glass is 4% to 25% of an output of the final glass product.

5. The process as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising feeding the burners in the auxiliary furnace with fuel comprising at least one recycled waste material selected from the group consisting of biomass waste, agri-food industry waste, wood waste, paper waste, and organic polymer waste.

6. The process as claimed in claim 5 , further comprising generating submerged-combustion energy in the auxiliary furnace, wherein the fuel comprising at least one recycled waste material accounts for 5% to 100% of submerged-combustion energy generated in the auxiliary furnace.

7. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein, when the main batch materials in the main furnace are molten, oxide is present in the molten main batch materials in the main furnace and in the auxiliary molten glass such that the difference in its weight percentage in the molten main batch materials in the main furnace and the auxiliary molten glass is not greater than 1%.

8. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the auxiliary furnace comprises at least one flue gas collector and the main furnace comprises at least one regenerator, and at least one flue gas is conveyed from the flue gas collector to the regenerator.

9. The process as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising converting the final glass product into flat glass.

10. The process as claimed in claim 9 , wherein, when the main batch materials in the main furnace are molten, a difference in redox of the auxiliary molten glass and the molten main batch materials in the main furnace does not exceed 20%.

11. The process as claimed in claim 9 , further comprising converting the final glass product to flat glass in a plant in which it floats on a bath of molten metal, a width of which is greater than 2 meters.

12. A process for manufacturing glass fibers that comprises the process for manufacturing glass from claim 1 , said glass then being converted to glass fibers in a fiberizing unit.

13. The process as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the glass does not pass into any compartment between the main furnace and the fiberizing unit.

14. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the main furnace is free of mechanical stirring.

15. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a ratio of a surface area of a molten bath of the main furnace to that of a molten bath of the auxiliary furnace ranges from 10 to 1000.

16. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the composition of said main batch materials is different from the composition of said auxiliary batch materials.

17. The process as claimed in claim 16 , wherein said auxiliary batch materials comprise organic materials and said main batch materials are free of organic materials.

18. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said main furnace is symmetrical about a longitudinal axis of the main furnace.

19. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said auxiliary furnace comprises two tanks in series.

20. A process for manufacturing a final glass product comprising:
producing an auxiliary molten glass by melting auxiliary batch materials in an auxiliary furnace having submerged burners,
feeding main batch materials comprising a powder or a cullet into a main furnace having electrodes or overhead burners, or both,
providing thermal energy in the auxiliary furnace with the submerged burners,
providing thermal energy in the main furnace, wherein more than 50% of the thermal energy provided in the main furnace is provided by electrodes and/or overhead burners,
melting said main batch materials in said main furnace to produce a molten glass bath in the main furnace,
feeding a feed consisting of the auxiliary molten glass into an upstream portion of the main furnace, the upstream portion being in a first upstream third of a length of a surface of the molten glass bath in the main furnace, and
generating a final glass product from the auxiliary molten glass and main batch materials in the main furnace.

21. The process as claimed in claim 20 , wherein a ratio of a surface area of a molten bath of the main furnace to that of a molten bath of the auxiliary furnace ranges from 10 to 1000.

22. The process as claimed in claim 20 , wherein an output of auxiliary glass is 2% to 40% of an output of the final glass product.

23. A process for manufacturing a final glass product comprising:
producing an auxiliary molten glass by melting auxiliary batch materials in an auxiliary furnace having submerged burners,
feeding main batch materials comprising a powder or a cullet into a main furnace having electrodes or overhead burners, or both,
providing thermal energy in the auxiliary furnace with the submerged burners,
providing thermal energy in the main furnace, wherein more than 50% of the thermal energy provided in the main furnace is provided by electrodes and/or overhead burners,
melting the main batch materials in the main furnace to produce a molten glass bath in the main furnace,
feeding the auxiliary molten glass into an upstream portion of the main furnace, the upstream portion being in a first upstream third of a length of a surface of the molten glass bath in the main furnace, and
generating a final glass product from the auxiliary molten glass and main batch materials in the main furnace,
wherein an output of auxiliary glass is 2% to 40% of an output of the main furnace.

24. The process as claimed in claim 23 , wherein the electrodes and/or overhead burners provide more than 80% of thermal energy provided in the main furnace.

25. The process as claimed in claim 23 , wherein the main furnace is free of mechanical stirring.

26. The process as claimed in claim 23 , wherein a ratio of a surface area of a molten bath of the main furnace to that of a molten bath of the auxiliary furnace ranges from 10 to 1000.

Assignees

• Jeanvoine Pierre
• Maugendre Stephane
• Saint Gobain
• Saint Gobain Isover

Inventors

• Jeanvoine Pierre
• Maugendre Stephane

Classifications

• C03B5/2356 Primary

  Submerged heating, e.g. by using heat pipes, hot gas or submerged combustion burners (bubblers C03B5/193) · CPC title

• C03B5/04

  in tank furnaces {(C03B5/02 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• Y02P40/57

  Improving the yield, e-g- reduction of reject rates · CPC title

• C03B2211/22

  by direct combustion in the melt · CPC title

• Y02P40/58

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic