Feasibility of flameless firing of primary glass melters for reduction of CO2 emissions.

Completed

Energy Efficiency(Industry)

Basic and strategic applied research

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Not Cross-cutting

Professor N Fricker
School of Technology
University of Glamorgan

3

Carbon Trust

01 April 2003

30 March 2004

12 months

£61,964

Wales

Professor N Fricker, School of Technology, University of Glamorgan

Project Contact, Gaz de France SA
Project Contact, Laidlaw Drew Ltd
Project Contact, Engie Resources, USA

This project seeks to validate the University of Glamorgan furnace model and the new 'flameless' approach to bulk glass melting using a unique experimental facility that replicates the high air preheats found on operational bulk glass melters.

Flameless firing involves a radical change to the way that existing primary glass melters are operated. The fuel-air mixing process is modified to achieve more uniform conditions within the furnace, enhancing heat transfer and reducing peak temperatures - the main cause of NOx formation. Model validation against industrial-scale experimental data is needed to propose the new technology to industry as 'feasible'. In this project a full-scale (1MW) glass bulk melter simulator, with capability of continuous non-reversing firing at air preheat exceeding 1100?C, is being used to validate an existing mathematical model and to explore flameless firing configurations for operational melters. The flameless combustion approach eliminates localised very high peak flame temperatures which contribute little to heat transfer but are a major source of NOx created by the 'thermal NOx' mechanism. Unvalidated furnace heat transfer model studies have indicated a potential saving of 132,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions (36,000 tonnes carbon) per annum for the UK primary glass melting sector as a whole. This is based on fuel savings for melting of up to 12% of current UK primary glass melting energy consumption (19,000 TJ/annum), plus the benefits from reducing or eliminating the fuel used for post- furnace NOx clean-up (5% to 8% of fuel used for melting). In estimating CO2 reductions, a 50:50 heavy fuel oil/natural gas mix has been assumed as typical of the sector over a ten-year period

01/01/07