PILOT-SCALE FURNACE FOR THE DEMONSTRATION OF TRANSFERRED ARC MELTING

The manufacture of glass is an energy intensive process. In a recent s urvey carried out for the Energy Efficiency Office((1)) actual melting energies ranged from 4.0 to 11.2 GJ/tonne. This compares to a theoret ical minimum melting energy requirement of 2.5 GJ/tonne The cost of ca pital equipment for melting is also large. This paper describes the ou tcome of work carried out to reduce the specific energy used for the m elting of glass and which might also lead to the use of smaller furnac es with lower capital, running and rebuild costs.