Tall Crown Glass Furnace Technology for Oxy-Fuel Firing

Abstract

Praxair, in collaboration with Heye Glas, has developed an advanced oxy-fuel glass melting technology, termed Tall Crown Furnace (TCF) technology, to reduce silica refractory corrosion, NO X emissions, SO X emissions and particulate emissions while maintaining the high heat transfer and energy efficiency of oxy-fuel glass melting. The technology has been successfully implemented by Heye International into the engineering design of three commercial oxy-fuel fired container glass furnaces. The first furnace was lit off in early 1996 and currently has reached a campaign life of about 8 and a half years (over 9000 metric tons of glass pulled per square meter of the melter area) without major silica corrosion problems. The furnace is expected to operate for a total furnace campaign of 10 to 11 years with the original silica crown, with overcoat repair near the end of this period. The furnace has also demonstrated a high heat transfer rate and an excellent energy efficiency with a productivity as high as 3.5 metric tpd/m 2 (2.8 ft 2 /tpd) without electric boost and a specific energy consumption of about 815 kcal/kg (3.3 MMBtu/ton) for flint glass with 60% cullet. The second and the third furnaces have adopted the same furnace design and have operated about six and four years respectively with furnace performance, similar to the first furnace.