The present invention relates to a process for producing a boron containing glass, comprising melting raw materials including boron compounds in a submerged combustion melter (11), withdrawing flue gases from said melter and recovering heat from said flue gases in appropriate heat recovery equipment prior to release into the environment.

A molten material apparatus can include a container including a wall at least partially defining a containment area and an opening extending through the wall. The molten material apparatus can include a protective sleeve mounted at least partially within the opening of the wall of the container. A thermocouple can be positioned within an internal bore of the protective sleeve. A method of processing molten material can include inserting a thermocouple into a protective sleeve fabricated from a refractory ceramic material, and measuring a temperature of material within a containment area of a container with the thermocouple.

The present invention relates to a process for producing a boron containing glass, comprising melting raw materials including boron compounds in a submerged combustion melter (11), withdrawing flue gases from said melter and recovering heat from said flue gases in appropriate heat recovery equipment prior to release into the environment.

A method for producing fused silica including pre-heating silica sand by passing the silica sand through a gas flame, distributing the pre-heated silica sand to a furnace having an internal temperature of about 1,713 C. or greater to form molten fused silica, and cooling the molten fused silica by flowing the molten silica from the furnace into a water bath to produce fused silica particulates.

The present invention relates to a melter assembly (1) for melting solid raw batch material, which comprises a submerged combustion melter section (3) and an afterburner section (5), wherein the submerged combustion melter section is designed to contain the melt bath (4) at a maximum melt level (4) and comprises at least one submerged combustion burner (21) and a melt outlet (9), and wherein the afterburner section (5) is designed as a space contiguous with, and in continuity of, the internal space defined by the submerged combustion melter section (3), and arranged over the maximum melt level (4) of the submerged combustion melter section (3). The afterburner section (5) is dimensioned such that the gases escaping from the melt bath (4) remain for at least 2 seconds at a temperature of at least 850 C. in said afterburner section (5), prior to being evacuated to the environment. The invention also relates to a process making use of such melter assembly (1).

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.

The invention includes systems and methods for melting materials to make glass and other materials subject to electric melting that improve the capacity of the melters and/or the melt quality and/or the melting costs and/or the life of tank melters. These systems and methods use one or more of boosting with one or more streams of super hot melt coming from one or more boosting melters, cooling one or more components of one or more of the melters normally cooled using water with a high temperature cooling fluid or fluid suspension and protecting the normally high wear areas of refractory linings by covering those high wear areas with one or more strips of a corrosion and oxidation resistant metal or alloy useful above 2400 degrees F.

A method of making glass is disclosed in which a flue gas that comprises water vapor is exhausted from a submerged combustion melter that is operated to discharge combustion products into a glass melt that results from the combustion of a mixture of hydrogen gas and an oxidant gas. Heat may be recovered from the exhausted flue gas to heat batch feedstock material fed to the melter, or water vapor in the exhausted flue gas may be condensed and returned to the melter for cooling purposes, or both. A glass-melting system is also disclosed that includes a submerged combustion melter, a batch feedstock material preheater in fluid communication with the submerged combustion melter and configured to heat batch feedstock material, a condenser in fluid communication with the batch feedstock material preheater, and a cooling water reservoir in fluid communication with the condenser and the submerged combustion melter.

A submerged combustion melter is arranged with a melting chamber, which may be cylindrical, and at least five submerged combustion burners.

Vitrified products are manufactured using a melt produced from batch materials comprising 35 to 100 w % man-made mineral fibers produced in a submerged combustion melter.