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P-9730 - CO2 Reduction From Glass Melting Furnaces by Oxy-Guel Firing Combined With BatchCullet Preheating PDF
P-9730 - CO2 Reduction From Glass Melting Furnaces by Oxy-Guel Firing Combined With BatchCullet Preheating PDF
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ABSTRACT
About 30% fuel savings and 20% reduction in CO2 emissions have been demonstrated in
an oxy-fuel fired container glass furnace combined with batch/cullet preheating, as compared
with a state-of-the art regeneartive furnace. An advanced oxy-fuel fired glass melting furnace
with a new batch/cullet preheater is projected to reduce the specific fuel consumption further
to 2.65 GJ/mton and specific CO2 emissions to 237 Kg/ton.
INTRODUCTION
As the glass industry faces new regulations to reduce CO2 emissions, there are only a few
practical options, i.e., switching to less carbon-intensive fuel such as natural gas and fuel
reduction through furnace energy efficiency improvements. Oxy-fuel firing offers a practical
option for significant CO2 reduction through furnace efficiency improvements. Actual fuel
savings and CO2 reduction achieved by oxy-fuel conversion depend on the type of the glass
furnace and the conditions of the heat recovery system in the original air furnace. For large
container and float glass furnaces with efficient regenerators, about 10 to 20% fuel savings
were typically achieved. For fiber glass furnaces with metallic recuperators fuel savings were
typically in a range of 40 to 50%. For smaller speciality glass furnaces, which are generally
not equipped with efficient regenerators or recuperators, fuel savings of 40-60% were
achieved. Although a fuel reduction in a furnace proportionally reduces CO2 emissions from
combustion, CO2 emissions for the generation of oxygen must be included to assess the
global effects. The average CO2 emission to produce a ton of oxygen corresponds to about
90-125 kg at the power plant and about 12-16% fuel savings are required to break even on the
overall CO2 emissions for natural gas fired furnaces [1]. Thus significant reductions in CO2
emissions have already been achieved through the glass melting furnaces converted to oxy-
fuel firing. The integration of a heat recovery system with oxy-fuel firing provides a large
potential for further reduction of CO2, as well as fuel and oxygen consumption.
About ten commercial container glass furnaces have been integrated with waste heat recovery
systems and achieved significant fuel reduction. A brief review of three oxy-fuel furnaces
equipped with heat recovery systems is provided below.
The batch/cullet preheaters available today were originally designed for a large volume of
flue gas from air fired regenerative furnaces. In order to use them for oxy-fuel fired furnaces,
dilution air is mixed into the flue gas to reduce the flue gas temperature from about 1450 oC
to about 500 to 600 oC. The dilution of hot flue gas not only increases the volume of the flue
gas, and hence the size of the down stream gas handling equipment, but also reduces the
amount of recoverable heat substantially. Figure 1 compares the amount of recoverable heat
from 410 tpd container glass furnaces equipped with a batch/cullet preheater for (1) air fired
regenerative furnace, (2) oxy-fuel fired furnace with dilution air, and (3) oxy-fuel fired
furnace without dilution air. The flue gas temperature after the batch/cullet preheater is
assumed to be 220 oC in all cases. For the air fired regenerative furnace the recoverable heat
corresponds to the enthalpy difference between 450 oC (i.e., assumed flue gas temperature
after the regenerators) and 220 oC, or about 50% of 13.6 GJ/hr of waste sensible heat. For the
oxy-fuel fired furnace without dilution air, about 85% of 15.6 GJ/hr of waste sensible heat is
recoverable due to the high flue gas temperature of 1450oC. When dilution air is used with
oxy-fuel fired furnace to reduce the flue gas temperature down to 600 oC, flue gas volume is
roughly tripled and the recoverable heat is reduced to about 68% of the waste sensible heat.
If cooled flue gas is recirculated and used as the diluent, the problem of reduced recoverable
heat could be avoided. However, flue gas recirculation increases the complexity of the
process and potentially creates maintenance concerns.
Figure 1. Recoverable waste heat in flue gas Air vs. Oxy with and without dilution air
Clearly it is advantageous to use the hot flue gas from an oxy-fuel fired furnace without
dilution air or flue gas recirculation. Several options have been previously patented [5].
Recuperators can be used directly to the hot flue gas to preheat oxygen and/or natural gas and
to cool down the flue gas to a temperature acceptable to a batch/cullet preheater. A shadow
wall can be installed near the charge end of a furnace to reduce flue gas temperature. These
methods, however, add complexity and costs to the overall heat recovery process. Praxair is
currently developing a batch/cullet recovery system that can take the hot flue gas without
dilution air to simplify the flue gas handling design and to improve the economics of oxy-fuel
fired glass furnace.
In Table 1, energy balances and CO2 emissions for a 410 tpd container glass furnace with
50% cullet are compared for five cases: (1) cross-fired regenerative air-fired furnace, (2)
regenerative air-fired furnace with B/C preheater, (3) oxy-fuel fired furnace, and (4) oxy-fuel
fired furnace with B/C preheater using dilution air, and (5) oxy-fuel fired furnace with B/C
preheater without dilution air. The conversion of the state-of-the-art air-regen furnace (Case
1) to oxy-fuel firing without heat recovery (Case 3) reduces fuel consumption by 13%, from
4.23 GJ/ton to 3.70 GJ/ton. With batch/cullet preheating the fuel consumption is reduced by
14.4% to 3.62 GJ/ton for the air-regen (Case 2), while the fuel consumption for the oxy-fuel
with dilution air (Case 4) is reduced by about 30% over the air-regen baseline to 2.98 GJ/ton.
The actual fuel consumption demonstrated at OI-BSN was slightly lower (i.e., 2.9 GJ/ton) as
the cullet ratio was higher (50 to 70%). It provides a good support on the accuracy of the
energy balance predictions. With a batch/cullet preheater without dilution air the oxy-fuel
Case 5 shows that the fuel consumption is reduced by 37% over the air baseline to 2.65
GJ/ton. CO2 emissions from the furnace are reduced by 27%. The overall CO2 emissions,
including that from power consumption by the oxygen plant, are reduced by 19% from 324
kg/ton to 264 kg/ton.
Table 1. Energy balances and CO2 emissions from 410 tpd container glass melting furnaces
with 50% cullet
SUMMARY
About 30% fuel savings and significant reductions in CO2 emissions, as compared with a
state-of-the art regeneartive furnace, have been demonstrated for an oxy-fuel fired container
glass furnace equipped with batch/cullet preheating. A new batch/cullet preheater which
eliminates air dilution is projected to improve the fuel efficiency further and to reduce the
installed costs for oxy-fuel fired furnaces.
REFERENCES
1. H. Kobayashi and B.A. van Hassel, Reduction of CO2 emissions using Oxy-Fuel
Combustion in Industrial Furnaces and Boilers, Eighth International Conference on
Energy for a Clean Environment, June 27-30, 2005, Lisbon
2. Kobayashi, H., K. T. Wu, G. B. Tuson, and F. Dumoulin, and J. Bllert, Tall Crown
glass Furnace Technology for Oxy-Fuel Firing, Proceedings of the 65th Conference on
Glass Problems, The Ohio State University, October, 2004.
3. G. Lubitz; E.F. Beutin; J. Leimkuehler: Oxy-fuel fired furnace in combination with batch
and cullet preheating. Presented at the NOVEM Energy Efficiency in Glass Industry
Workshop (2000) Amsterdam, May 18- 19.
4. Schroeder, R.W., Kwamya, J.D., Leone, P., Barrickman, L., Batch and Cullet Preheating
and Emissions Control on Oxy-Fuel Furnaces, 60th Conference on Glass Problems,
University of Illinois at Urbana, October 19 to 20, 1999.
5. U.S. Patent 5,807,418 (September 15, 1998)
P-9730