Fly ash and/or rice husk ash is molten in a submerged combustion melter, possibly together with fluxing agent and/or further vitrifiable material, and vitrified upon cooling.

A feed assembly for a melting chamber having a plurality of walls and at least one submerged burner, and related methods of its operation are disclosed. The feed assembly includes a tubular body being hollow and having a first end and extending to a second end. The second end is for connecting to one of the plurality of walls. The tubular body further includes a port proximate the second end wherein the port has a first port end and tapers radially inwardly to a second port end at the second end. The feed assembly also has a batch charger disposed within the tubular body and having a first charger end and extending to a second charger end.

A melting apparatus is disclosed, the melting apparatus including a melting vessel with a back wall, a front wall, a first side wall, a second side wall and a longitudinal centerline extending therebetween and a width between the first and second side walls orthogonal to the centerline. The melting vessel further includes a first feed screw including a first axis of rotation and a second feed screw including a second axis of rotation, the first axis of rotation positioned between the longitudinal centerline and the first side wall and the second axis of rotation positioned between the longitudinal centerline and the second side wall. The positions of either one or both the first and second axes of rotation are located from a respective side wall a distance that is equal to or less than about 15% of the width of the melting vessel.

Provided is a manufacturing method for a glass article, including: a supply step of supplying glass raw materials (4) onto a molten glass (2) accommodated in a melting chamber (3) of a glass melting furnace (1); a melting step of melting the supplied glass raw materials (4) through heating; and an outflow step of causing the molten glass (2) to flow outside the melting chamber (3), wherein the glass raw materials (4) supplied from one screw feeder (5) and another screw feeder (5), which are adjacent to each other out of a plurality of screw feeders (5), extend in parallel through intermediation of a gap (6) on the molten glass (2), and wherein the glass raw materials (4) are melted through heating only with an electrode (8) and an electrode (9) each immersed in the molten glass (2) in the melting chamber (3).

A batch charger includes a barrel defining a direction X of charging a glass forming batch into the furnace, and a mechanical assembly provided with a member for conveying the batch to the furnace in the charging direction X, this conveying member being at least partially arranged in the barrel, and a motorized unit for driving the conveying member. The batch charger includes a mechanical assembly translatably mobile relative to the barrel, in the charging direction X.

Apparatus, system, and method for blending batch and cullet at a predetermined cullet ratio for feeding to a furnace. It includes a first hopper for holding cullet; a second hopper for holding batch; feeder associated with the second hopper; a chamber positioned to receive cullet from the first hopper, an inlet spout configured to receive cullet from the first hopper so that cullet flood feeds into the chamber to keep it constantly filled with cullet up to its angle of repose, and an outlet spout; a chute positioned to receive batch from the feeder and extending into the chamber and having a chute outlet having a diameter equal to or larger than the outlet spout; a charger for receiving mixed batch and cullet from the chamber; and a controller operatively connected to the feeder and to the charger.

The invention relates to a material feeding system (1) for a melter comprising: (i) a substantially horizontal feeding barrel (5) designed to feed solid material through the melter wall (9) into the melt (11) contained in the said melter, and arranged below the level (13) of the melt (11) contained in the melter (30), (ii) said feeding barrel (5) comprising a material input opening (15) and material output opening (17), the material output opening (17) leading into the melt (11) contained in the melter (30), said feeding barrel (5) comprising an internal feeder (20) designed to push solid material (7) loaded through the material input opening (15), in the direction of the longitudinal barrel axis (6) toward the material output opening (17), the end of the internal feeder (20) on the material output side extending at a minimum at a distance from the internal melter surface (19) of two (2) to ten (10) times the diameter of the feeding barrel (5), preferably three (3) to eight (8) times the diameter of the feeding barrel, more preferably three (3) to six (6) times the diameter of the feeding barrel or three (3) to five (5) times the diameter of the feeding barrel (5). The invention further covers a submerged combustion melter equipped with above material feeding system and a process for feeding material into a melter.

A method of melting glass and glass-ceramics that includes the steps: conveying a batch of raw materials into a submerged combustion melting apparatus, the melting apparatus having liquid-cooled walls and a floor; directing a flame into the batch of raw materials and the melted batch with sufficient energy to form the raw materials into the melted batch; and heating a delivery orifice assembly in the floor of the submerged melting apparatus to convey the melted batch through the orifice assembly into a containment vessel. The melted batch has a glass or glass-ceramic composition that is substantially reactive to a refractory material comprising one or more of silica, zirconia, alumina, platinum and platinum alloys.

A feed assembly having a hollow tubular body and a batch charger disposed within the hollow tubular body is disclosed. The hollow tubular body extends along a central axis from a first end to a second end and, further, comprises a port that tapers from a first port end to a second port end at the second end of the tubular body. The batch charger includes a first charger end proximate the first end of the tubular body and a second charger end proximate the second end of the tubular body. The second charger end is spaced away from the second end of the tubular body to provide a port space within the port. An apparatus that includes a melting chamber and a feed assembly is also disclosed along with a method of feeding batch materials into a melting chamber.

A melting furnace feedstock charger includes a charger conduit including an inlet to receive feedstock and an outlet at an outlet portion of the charger conduit to transmit feedstock, and an auger or other feedstock mover coupled to the charger conduit to convey feedstock in a direction from the inlet toward the outlet. A gate may be detachably coupled to the outlet portion of the charger conduit and configured to be coupled directly to a wall of a melting vessel. The auger may have a helical flight with an outer diameter of varying size. A stripper may be movably carried by the charger conduit and may include a stripping tool moved by an actuator with respect to the charger conduit to facilitate transmission of feedstock and/or to strip away clogged feedstock and/or molten material.