Effect of small glass composition changes on flue gas emissions of glass furnaces

Relatively small changes in glass composition might have drastic consequences on the evaporation rates of volatile glass components in glass melting furnaces. Transpiration evaporation tests have been applied to measure the impact of minor glass composition changes on the evaporation rates of volatile glass components in simulated furnace atmospheres. The results of these laboratory evaporation tests were used to develop and optimize an universally applicable evaporation model to estimate evaporation rates and dust emissions for industrial glass melt furnaces. Mass transfer relations for the transport of volatile glass melt species into the turbulent gas phase were used to upscale the evaporation models valid for the lab tests to applications for industrial glass furnaces. In this paper, the impact of sulfur and chlorides on the evaporation rates of sodium and potassium from multi-component silicate melts for industrial glass production will be demonstrated