A method of making a glass product includes the steps of: melting a batch of a plurality of glass raw materials in a melting tank to form a glass melt; heating at least one of the plurality of glass raw materials and the glass melt using at least one fuel burner by reacting hydrogen and oxygen; withdrawing the glass melt from the melting tank; obtaining a glass product, the glass product having an Fe.sup.2+ to Fe.sup.3+ ratio of less than 0.2 or less than 0.05 and having at least one of less than 80 bubbles in a size range of from 0.1 mm to 0.2 mm per 10 kg of glass and less than 2 bubbles of a size larger than 0.2 mm per 10 kg of a glass.

A method for producing a glass ceramic includes: providing a batch of raw materials; heating the batch of raw materials until a melt is obtained, the batch of raw materials being heated at least in a plurality of sections to a temperature above T3 which corresponds to a viscosity of a molten glass of 10.sup.3 dPa*s; refining the melt, the melt being heated at least in a plurality of sections to a temperature above T2.5 which corresponds to a viscosity of the molten glass of 10.sup.2.5 dPa*s; obtaining a refined glass which is configured for being ceramized to form a glass ceramic material; and ceramizing a glass which is configured for being ceramized to form the glass ceramic material, at least one of the step of heating until the melt is obtained and the step of refining being performed with heating by way of H.sub.2 and O.sub.2 combustion.

A method for melting and/or refining glass, glass ceramic or glass which can be ceramized to form glass ceramic includes: providing a batch of raw materials; heating the batch until a melt of molten glass is obtained, the batch being heated at least in sections to a temperature above T3 which corresponds to a viscosity of the molten glass of 10.sup.3 dPa*s; refining the melt, the melt being heated at least in sections to a temperature above T2.5 which corresponds to a viscosity of the molten glass of 10.sup.2.5 dPa*s, refining of the melt includes adjusting an oxygen partial pressure p(O.sub.2) which is reduced by at least 60% relative to an O.sub.2 saturation in the melt at temperature T3; and obtaining a re-fined glass, a refined glass ceramic or a refined glass which can be ceramized to form glass ceramic.

The invention provides methods of making man-made vitreous fibres (MMVF), comprising incorporating metallic aluminium into the mineral charge, with the benefit of reduced shrinkage of consolidated MMVF products.

Submerged combustion burners having a burner body and a burner tip connected thereto. The burner body has an external conduit and first and second internal conduits substantially concentric therewith, forming first and second annuli for passing a cooling fluid therethrough. A burner tip body is connected to the burner body at ends of the external and second internal conduits. The burner tip includes a generally central flow passage for a combustible mixture, the flow passage defined by an inner wall of the burner tip. The burner tip further has an outer wall and a crown connecting the inner and outer walls. The inner and outer walls, and the crown are comprised of same or different materials having greater corrosion and/or fatigue resistance than at least the external burner conduit.

The invention provides a method to form a melt for making man-made vitreous fibres, in which mineral raw material is melted in a gas-fired cyclone furnace and the mineral charge comprises a material that comprises metallic aluminium.

The invention relates to a melting unit and method in which: a melting chamber is heated by means of combustion, the combustion fumes are used to heat the air used as a heat-transfer gas, the heated air is used to pre-heat the combustion oxygen and/or the gaseous fuel, the tempered air resulting from the pre-heating is compressed, the compressed tempered air is heated by means of heat exchange with the combustion fumes, and the mechanical and/or electrical energy is generated by expansion of the heated compressed air.

The present invention relates to the supplying power to burners for oxy-fuel combustion glass melting furnaces, including a fuel injecting means and a hot oxygen power supplying means, the dispensing of oxygen being carried out so as to develop a staged combustion, a fraction of the oxygen being concurrently injected into the fuel, said oxygen being supplied essentially without heating prior to the supplying thereof into the fuel injecting means.

Methods and systems for controlling bubble size and bubble decay rate of glass foams formed during submerged combustion melting. Flowing a molten mass of foamed glass comprising molten glass and bubbles entrained therein into an apparatus downstream of a submerged combustion melter. The downstream apparatus has a floor, a roof, and a sidewall structure connecting the floor and roof. The foamed glass has glass foam of glass foam bubbles on its top surface, and the downstream apparatus defines a space for a gaseous atmosphere above and in contact with the glass foam. The downstream apparatus includes heating components to heat or maintain temperature of the foamed glass. Adjusting composition of the atmosphere above the glass foam, and/or contacting the foam with a liquid or solid composition controls bubble size of the glass foam bubbles, and/or foam decay rate.

A method of producing flint glass using submerged combustion melting involves introducing a vitrifiable feed material into a glass melt contained within a submerged combustion melter. The vitrifiable feed material is formulated to provide the glass melt with a glass chemical composition suitable for producing flint glass articles. To that end, the glass melt comprises a total iron content expressed as Fe.sub.2O.sub.3 in an amount ranging from 0.04 wt % to 0.06 wt % and also has a redox ratio that ranges from 0.1 to 0.4, and the vitrifiable feed material further includes between 0.008 wt % and 0.016 wt % of selenium or between 0.1 wt % and 0.2 wt % of manganese oxide in order to achieve an appropriate content of selenium or manganese oxide in the glass melt.