Small changes in glass composition may have drastic consequences on evaporation rates of volatile glass components in glass melting furnaces. Transpiration evaporation tests have been applied to measure the impact of minor glass composition changes on evaporation rates of volatile glass components in simulated furnace atmospheres. Results of these evaporation tests were used to develop & optimise a universally applicable evaporation model to estimate evaporation rates & dust emissions for industrial glass melt furnaces. Mass transfer relations for the transport of volatile glass melt species into the turbulent gas phase were used to upscale the evaporation models valid for the lab tests to applications for industrial glass furnaces. In this paper, the impact of sulfur & chlorides on evaporation rates of sodium & potassium from multi-component silicate melts for industrial glass production will be demonstrated.
