ION TRANSPORT MEMBRANES IN FLOAT GLASS MANUFACTURING

摘要

An ion transport membrane, a heat exchanger, and a recuperator are integrated with a float glass manufacturing process. Only feeds of fuel and air are necessary for producing hot oxygen for a melting furnace and a nitrogen-enriched stream to a float bath. The oxygen and nitrogen are produced on-site without requiring cryogenic distillation.

主权项

1. A method for producing float glass, comprising:
compressing air with a compressor; feeding gaseous fuel and an excess of the compressed air to a combustor; combusting the compressed air and fuel at the combustor to produce a stream of air-enriched products of combustion; feeding the stream of air-enriched products of combustion to an ion transport membrane to produce a permeate stream of pure oxygen and a non-permeate stream comprising nitrogen-enriched products of combustion; heating a stream of fuel through heat exchange with the non-permeate stream at a heat exchanger; and combusting the permeate stream and the heated stream of fuel in a glass melting furnace to produce hot flue gas; heating the non-permeate stream through heat exchange with the hot flue gas at a recuperator; and feeding the non-permeate stream above a float glass bath.