SUBMERGED COMBUSTION MELTERS AND METHODS

摘要

A submerged combustion melter 10 is arranged with a vertical melting chamber 11, which may be cylindrical, and at least five submerged combustion burners 21-26 in the bottom base 13, the burners so spaced apart from each other and from the walls and angled from the vertical that in use a toroidal flow pattern can be achieved, providing intensive mixing. The claims also pertain to a method of melting a vitrifiable material from solid batch by submerged combustion melting.

主权项

1. A submerged combustion melter (10) comprising a melting chamber (11) having a periphery (12), a base (13), a vertical central melting chamber axis (7) and a burner positioning plane (14),
the melter being equipped with: a raw material feeder(15); a melt outlet (16); and at least five submerged combustion burners (21, 22, 23, 24, 25), each of the at least five submerged combustion burners (21, 22, 23, 24, 25) having a respective central burner axis (31, 32, 33, 34, 35) and one or more nozzle outlets (41,42,43,44,45); the burner positioning plane being perpendicular to the central melter axis (7) and arranged at a weighted average distance with respect to each of the nozzle outlets (41,42,43,44,45); characterized in that each of the at least five submerged combustion burners (21, 22, 23, 24, 25) is arranged to project from a respective burner position (51,52,53,54,55) defined by the intersection between the projection of its central burner axis (31, 32, 33, 34, 35) and the positioning plane (14); each burner position (51,52,53,54,55) is arranged at a respective adjacent burner spacing (512,523,534,545,551) with respect to each of its two closest adjacent burner positions (51,52,53,54,55) and the difference between each adjacent burner spacing and the mean average of the adjacent burner spacings is less than or equal to 20% of the mean average of the adjacent burner spacings; each central burner axis (31, 32, 33, 34, 35) has a respective burner axis circle (71,72,73,74,75) which projects around the central burner axis (31, 32, 33, 34, 35) and has a radius (r1,r2,r3,r4,r5) which is equal to its weighted burner axis-periphery distance in the melter; the difference between the radius of each burner-axis circle (71,72,73,74,75) and the mean average radius of the burner-axis circles (71,72,73,74,75) is less than or equal to 20% of the mean average radius of burner-axis circles; and the melter has a central zone (70) at the positioning plane (14) defined between the burner axis circles (71,72,73,74,75) at the positioning plane (14), the central melting zone (70) having a diameter of at least 250 mm.