Glass Melting Technology: A Technical and Economic ... - OSTI

and has proved highly reliable. The industrial units are air-gas fired, but GTI has
demonstrated smooth operation of oxy-glass burners on a 300 lb/h melter with several
siliceous melts. This experience provides a solid basis for extending SCM to industrialglass
production.
A number of hurdles must be overcome to develop SCM into the NGMS melter and to
develop the full NGMS process. The wide glass making, combustion, modeling, and
engineering knowledge and experience of the project team assure the technical feasibility
of this technology. No other project in recent memory has captured the commitment of
such a large portion of the glass industry. This strong support makes clear that there is a
great need for a revolutionary new melting technology and that these glass industry
experts believe the melting technology to be demonstrated in this project is technically
feasible and meets all the cost savings, energy reduction, emissions reduction, and
operability needs of the glass industry.
Status of development
Project work was initiated in the fourth quarter of 2003. A subcontract was put in place
with A.C. Leadbetter and Son, Inc. for design and fabrication of the pilot-scale melter.
Several decisions were reached regarding the melter. First, the original plan for a
capacity of 500 to 1000 lb/h was changed to 2000 lb/h. This decision was reached when
analysis determined that this capacity is required to achieve desired mixing and stable
melt removal. The second decision made was to continue with a rectangular melt tank
shape.
Project managers put a sub-contract in place with Prof. Leonard Pioro, the developer of
the SCM technology. In meeting with him in December 2003, engineers discussed
melter operation, melter components, and melter shape. The melter can have a round
cross section. This offers several potential advantages, including lower heat losses
through the walls and better control of batch charging and exhaust gas removal. At this
time, however, the round cross-sectioned melter is unproven. The decision was reached
to build the pilot melter based on the proven rectangular shape. CFD modeling and
physical modeling of the melter will both include rectangular and well as round cross
sectioned SCM units.
A meeting was held at GTI with representatives of the six glass company partners. At
that meeting, details regarding the course of project activities were outlined, discussed,
modified, and agreed to.
In response to the need to learn information on SCM glass melting at early as possible,
the project team agreed to plan for at least two melting tests with the existing SCM pilot
unit. The batch material will be supplied by the glass company partners, and they will
also define glass sampling conditions and conduct analyses. The needed components for
these tests, including the batch hopper, the charging system, the baghouse, the melt
sampling system, etc., will be designed and fabricated with the intent of using the same
components for the larger 1 ton/h pilot unit to be built for extensive testing in 2005.
Work began on the conceptual design for the needed components and for the larger pilot
156