Consol Glass is the leading S African glass-container producer with manufacturing facilities in Wadeville & Clayville near Johannesburg, as well as in Pretoria & Bellville, nr Cape Town. The company produces many types of containers, including a large variety of glass colours. In 2002, Sorg was asked by Consol to design a large all-electric melter for container glass. Energy sources in S Africa significantly differ from those in most other countries. Much use is made of large deposits of coal because there are no indigenous oil reserves. After describing problems encountered with the development of the melter, the article concludes that the vertical, all-electric melter cannot be used to melt green glass at the same pull levels as flint glass because of the sensitive redox reactions which require higher temperatures in the batch layer.
