Glass-melting installation comprising two furnaces

摘要

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.

主权项

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.