Glass melting process with very low to zero-co2 emission

1:

• A method for melting vitrifiable materials to produce flat glass, comprising:
• providing a furnace comprising:
• (i) a main melting tank comprising at least an upstream zone covered by a crown C1 and equipped with an electrical heating means, a downstream zone covered by a crown C2 and equipped with a combustion heating means, and a transition zone between the crown C1 and the crown C2,
• (ii) an auxiliary melting tank,
• (iii) a fining tank covered by a crown C4 and equipped with an oxy-combustion heating means,
• (iv) a neck covered by a crown C3 and separating the main melting tank and the fining tank,
• (v) at least one inlet means located at the main melting tank,
• (vi) an outlet means located downstream of the fining tank, and
• (vii) at least one extraction means of a flue gas located at the at least one upstream zone,
• the furnace having a height H1 of the crown C1 defined by:
• H1≤0.75*H2;
• H2 being a height of the crown C2, L1 being a length of the at least one upstream zone defined by:
• 0.25*(L1+L2)≤L1≤0.8*(L1+L2);
• L2 being a length of the downstream zone, and LT being a length of the transition zone defined by:
• LT≤0.2*(L1+L2);
• charging the vitrifiable materials comprising raw materials and cullet in the main melting tank with the at least one inlet means and/or in the auxiliary melting tank, an amount of the cullet being at least 10% in weight of a total amount of the vitrifiable materials;
• pre-melting at least a part of the cullet in the auxiliary melting tank and flowing the pre-melted cullet to the main melting tank;
• melting the vitrifiable materials in the main melting tank with the electrical heating means and the combustion heating means;
• fining the melt in the fining tank by heating with the oxy-combustion heating means fed with gas and/or hydrogen;
• flowing the melt from the fining tank to a working zone through the outlet means;
• and
• capturing CO2 from the flue gas, the flue gas having a CO2 concentration of at least 35%;
• wherein an electrical input fraction is from 30% to 85% and the capturing of the CO2 from the flue gas comprises a compression and/or a dehydration.