Glass Melting


Melting is the most energy intensive and costly part of glass production. Even if melting were 100% efficient, it would still take 2.3 million BTUs to melt a ton of glass. In practice, it takes two to three times that much energy because of furnace inefficiency and heat loss. The goal of the U.S. glass industry is to reduce this loss of process heat by 50%. Thus, there is a considerable need to improve our understanding of combustion dynamics and heat transfer and increase our knowledge of the physical and chemical properties of the glass melt.

Bob Gallagher is working with PPG Industries and DOE to establish an advanced laboratory to study glass-furnace combustion, melting, testing, and model validation at the Combustion Research Facility. The Glass Furnace Combustion and Melting Research Facility, will eventually be open to all U.S. glass manufacturers for joint work with Sandia scientists and engineers to solve practical problems. In the beginning, research will center on a pilot-plant-size melting tank equipped with advanced optical diagnostics.

The starting point for the proposed melting furnace design was the selection of a glass pull rate high enough to provide realistic tank conditions, but not so high that materials handling would become the major focus of the work. An important requirement of the melting tank is that circulation of the glass be sufficient to reproduce the mixing and homogenization process in large tanks.

Glass manufacturers believe the time is right for developing and applying new approaches to monitoring and control of glass production and the design of melting furnaces. The Glass Furnace Combustion and Melting Research Facility will be at the center of that activity, putting the U.S. at the forefront of new developments in glass production.