Batch and cullet preheating itself is not new. First installations in the glass industry go back to the early 1980s. However, even after first successes and significant energy savings (~4-18%) the demand was not increasing, due to low energy prices, investment costs, risk aversion of decision makers, and also certain shortcomings of existing systems. However, more recently, interest in this technology has increased significantly. One major challenge in first generation systems was the evaporation of batch moisture in the pre-heater, which resulted in batch clogging and maintenance efforts and restricted the application to batch with cullet ratios above around 50%. In order to improve the existing technology, Zippe undertook considerable R&D activities and finally initiated a pilot project, together with a major EU container glass producer and a leading company in furnace design to test and prove teh superiority of the 2nd generation systems. In the meantime, in 2010, another batch and cullet pre-heater (350m/tpd) was installed and first results are now available. This paper deals with the new experiences made and elaborates under which circumstances modern batching preheating shall be taken into account to save energy and therefore energy costs.
