[Furnaces] Old Solutions To A New Problem

It is becoming evident that many of the glass furnaces which had environmental abatement equipment installed at last rebuild are now coming to the twilight of their operating lives. In both air and oxy-fuel furnaces as the furnaces deteriorate, it is often the abatement devices such as an Electrostatic Precipitator (EP) which risk becoming the bottleneck in future. Through an increase in the performance of refractories, combustion systems and market demands, furnaces are tending to be pushed beyond their original "boiler plate capacity." This article discusses furnace optical temperature surveys and profiles.