No abstract

Sodium species vaporized from melting batch and molten glass in tank furnaces are the principal agents of corrosion of superstructure refractory and main contributors to emissions of particulate matter from glass melting. The use of oxygen in place of air for combustion of natural gas reduces particulate emissions, but is thought to accelerate corrosion in some melting tanks. Methods for measuring sodium are under investigation as means for identifying the volatilization, transport, and deposition mechanisms and developing strategies for control. Three separate methods were used to measure the concentrations of sodium species at various locations in an oxygen-natural gas-fired soda-lime-silica glass melting tank. Measurements were made inside the furnace using the absorption of visible light' and in the flue duct using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). Measurements in both the furnace and flue were also made by withdrawing and analyzing samples of 'the furnace gas.

The need for a Combustion and Melting Research Facility focused on the solution of glass manufacturing problems common to all segments of the glass industry was given high priority in the earliest version of the Glass Industry Technology Roadmap (Eisenhauer et al., 1997). Visteon Glass Systems and, later, PPG Industries proposed to meet this requirement, in partnership with the DOE/OIT Glass Program and Sandia National Laboratories, by designing and building a research furnace equipped with state-

No abstract