Prevention and control measures to reduce particulate emissions include:

Increased cullet utilization;

Optimization of furnace design and geometry to permit reduction in furnace temperature;

Use of fuels with low sulfur content;

End-of-pipe prevention and control techniques to reduce dust emission include the installation of
electrostatic precipitators (ESP) or baghouse filters.2 ESPs may have overall dust collection of 95 to 99
percent . Baghouses are used for lower waste gas volume, typically up to 20,000 - 30,000 Nm3/h of flue
gases, whereas ESPs would be more normal at higher flue gas flow rates

Emission control

lowering the amount of excess air;

reduced air preheating;

staged combustion;

flue gas recirculation;

reburning / 3R process;

low NOx glass melting furnaces;

The emissions of carbon dioxide from the carbonisation process can be reduced by adding more
recycled glass or using noncarbonate basic materials and by fossil fuel energy saving measures, Use of
fuels with low sulfur content and natural gas;

sulfur-containing fuel is used, then the following techniques can be considered:

A dry scrubber in which calcium- or sodium-based6 materials are injected into the flue gas stream
products before filtering waste gas; Installation of semi-wet scrubbers (reactive scrubbers or quench
reactors) characterized by the addition of some basic reactive chemicals (calcium- and sodium-based)
that are dissolved into wash water (wet abatement).

prevent and control GHG emissions include:

Use of low carbon content fuels (e.g. natural gas, where possible, instead of fuel oil or solid fossil
fuels);

Maximizing cullet use to increase energy efficiency and to limit the use of carbonate raw materials,
especially in container glass production. Furnace energy use is typically reduced by 0.150.3 percent for
each percent of cullet in batch.

Use of inverter-based variable speed drives with large combustion air and cooling air fans.

Waste heat recovery from furnace flue gases: heat may be used for batch or cullet preheat, or to
provide hot or steam for space heating purposes.
 Recycling refractory waste as a feedstock for brick manufacturing (this technique does not affect the
quality of the final product);

Replacing refractory bricks typically every 612 years (appropriate recycling of these materials
presents a pollution-prevention opportunity that should be defined when furnace / forehearth rebuild
and repair is implemented);

Energy savings in the melting field

a) Increased use of cullet.

b) Improvement of the batch, with the aim of reducing the amount of energy required for melting. .
Lowering of the melting temperature . Speeding up of the melting process

c) Improvement of the furnaces, in order to reduce the extensive losses through the crown and the
walls, only a part of which can be recovered. . Use of insulating refractory materials, which enable the
furnace and the regenerator chambers to be better insulated . With a constant specific melting capacity,
the ration of heat losses to the quantity of molten glass is reduced by using bigger furnaces .
Improvement of the design of the furnace, with the aim of raising specific melting capacity . Electric
melting and electric boosting in totally electric furnaces . Substitution of the sheet glass process by the
float glass process

d) Partial recovery of the losses through the crown and the walls by removing the hot air by suction from
certain parts of the furnace.

e) Improvement of the combustion and control of the flames and of the management of the furnace, in
order to obtain the useful energy with less fuel. . Better atomization of the oil, by using natural gas
instead of compressed air . Optimum flame formation and regenerator reversal cycle . Reduction of the
cooling air for the burner . Accurate control by using industrial computers

f) Increase in the yield between the batch and the finished product. . Reduction to a minimum of the
times required to replace production machines and tools, by means of adequate planning, preventive
maintenance and higher mechanization . Reduction of all factors in the production process which cause
quality to be poor . Improvement of controls, to ensure that any quality defects can immediately be
detected and remedied

g) Secondary recovery of the heat from the combustion gases escaping through the regenerators and
recuperators . Utilization of the waste heat potential by means of heat exchangers . Preheating of the
batch and/or cullet with the exhaust gas reverse current
 Wastewater

The most significant water use occurs during cooling and cullet cleaning. Aqueous emissions will consist
of contact cooling water system purges, cleaning waters, and surface water runoff. Techniques for
treating industrial process wastewater in this sector include oil water separators; flow and load
equalization with pH adjustment; screening and sedimentation for suspended solids reduction using
settling basins or clarifiers; multimedia filtration for reduction in non-settleable suspended solids;
dewatering and disposal of residuals in landfills, or if hazardous in designated hazardous waste disposal
sites

Solid waste

Solid waste is generated from glass manufacturing mainly in the shipping areas. Cleanup and
maintenance in receiving areas can reduce this waste and allow material spills to be collected and added
to the raw materials. Paving the receiving areas allows for efficient and effective collection and cleanup
and also allows spilled material to be adequately identified, segregated, and recycled into the process

Solid-process residues deriving from the melting process include dust from regenerators (or
recuperators) that is removed during mechanical or thermal cleaning, and waste-refractory materials
from periodic furnace maintenance, repair, and decommissioning (about 5002,000 tons / operation,
usually conducted every 515 years), including refractories rich in chromium and zirconium. Other waste
includes dust collected in abatement equipment

Continuous Glass Melting Process

A continuous process has a beginning and an end; raw materials are fed into the
front of the furnace, and molten glass is removed from the end. As the glass passes
through different zones within the furnace, specific steps in the melting process are
performed.

Continuous Process Advantages:

High throughput: glass is always being made, and finished product is always coming out of
the furnace.

Conducive to automation: this can translate into lower costs when large numbers of
product are required.

Best for:
Long runs and high volumes (100-500 tons/day) of the same or very similar formulations
of glass.

Limited number of color or compositional changes between products.

Types of Products Typically Produced by Continuous Melting:

 Food and beverage containers.

Architectural glass.

Insulation and reinforcing fiberglass.

Consumer products, such as TV and smartphone screens.

Batch Glass Melting Process

In a batch process, all raw materials are added at one time, as opposed to being
continually fed into a furnace. The glass is melted in a single vessel or furnace, which is
sometimes called a day tank. Once the glass is melted, a portion of the glass is
removed from the melting vessel and is formed into a product. This step is performed
multiple times until the vessel is empty, which marks the end of that batch.

Batch Process Advantages:

Nimble manufacturing process: easy to scale up and down to customer demand.

Flexibility: multiple formulations can be melted with the ability to minimize cross-
contamination between different glass compositions.

Best for:
New product development due to simpler process control and smaller scale. Melting
parameters can be customized and adjusted easily to shorten the new product
development cycle.

Short runs of a wide variety of glass formulations and colors.

Short lead times for uncommon or custom glasses.

Small medium volumes ( 0.5 2000 pounds).

Types of Products Typically Produced by Batch Melting:

Aircraft lighting lenses.

Molded filter glasses.

Custom molded lenses for industrial and signal applications.