Objetivo The aim of the project is to alter a recuperative end fired water glass furnace from co-flow to counter flow in order to reduce the fuel consumption (natural gas) per ton of glass. Furnace efficiency is improved by the reduction of the chimney temperature of the gases.- The melter is still running at around 80 ton/day and the initially achieved reduction in fuel consumption of around 16% has been maintained over the years.- In the meantime 3 new counterflow melters for waterglass have been constructed, 1 in Winchester and 2 for Oriental Silica Ltd in Thailand. The size vary between 26 and 36 ton/day. Energy savings over co-flow melters are estimated at around 16%, while the construction costs are about the same as for a co flow melter.The firm produces waterglass lumps in recuperative rotary drum and recuperative tank furnaces. The subject of this work is a recuperative tank furnace with production rates between 35 and 85 tons/day. Existing furnaces were end-fired with parallel co-flow of gas and glass. In order to improve the heat economy and to simplify the front wall construction, where burners and batch feeders are close together, the counter flow melter was developed.First a theoretical study established that a better fuel economy could be expected. Based on this study a furnace design was made. This project includes construction, installation and experimental analysis of the unit.In a co-flow recuperative end-fired melter, the hot flame cools down rapidly over the cold batch, but the flue gases have to stay rather hot to enable heat transfer to take place to the hot glass at the discharge end of the melter. There is a certain glass flow underneath the melting batch transporting the molten batch to the discharge point. The batch inlet and the burners are close together and some batch is carried out of the melter by the flue gases.It partly settles in the recuperator, but some of it is discharged via the chimney. In a counter flow design flue gases meet cold batch just before leaving the melter, so they cool further than wich co-flow: this improves the thermal efficiency. The mentioned theoretical study foresee a reduction of gas consumption in a 85 tons/day furnace from 171 to 124 nm3 per ton of glass. Programa(s) ENG-ENALT 1C - Programme (EEC) of financial support for projects to exploit alternative energy sources, 1979-1984 Tema(s) 1.6 - INDUSTRY Convocatoria de propuestas Data not available Régimen de financiación DEM - Demonstration contracts Coordinador AKZO ZOUT CHEMIE NEDERLAND BV Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección BOORTORENWEG 20 7554 Hengelo Países Bajos Ver en el mapa Coste total Sin datos
