Oxygen fuel firing has become one of the competitive solutions for glass melting in the past decades. Environmental pressures, investment costs and individual energy cost conditions are the driving forces for conversion. Numerous improvements in oxygen firing technology have been made in the past, but one of the remaining concerns regarding oxy-fuel firing was the very high flue gas exit temperature. Sorg has carried out an extensive modelling study to address this issue, which has led to a new furnace design based on known and proven Sorg furnace design features. The Sorg LoNOx Melter was used as a reference for the development. As a result of the study, an oxy-fuel fired furnace with one radiation wall was developed. The tank utilises the design features known from the LoNOx melter in principle. The dimensions in the combustion charger and melter tank were optimised during the modelling study. The furnace design provides a reduction in energy consumption by about 10%, equivalent to a flue gas temperature reduction of more than 200 deg C. Investment cost increase as a result of a footprint increase of about 13% and the radiation wall will be compensated by energy savings within about 2 years at current energy costs. Additional heat recovery facilities behind the furnace are possible.
