Glassmaking furnace employing heat pipes for preheating glass batch
AssigneePPG Industries, Inc.
InventorsYih-Wan Tsai, John E. Sensi, Vincent I. Henry
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus and method are provided for recovering waste heat from the exhaust of a combustion-heated glass melting furnace and transferred by heat pipes to an enclosure in which incoming glass batch materials are preheated prior to being fed to the furnace for melting. The batch materials are efficiently preheated with the waste heat without permitting direct contact between the exhaust effluent and the batch materials so that the entrainment and discharge of batch dust with the effluent is avoided.
Claims7
In a method of melting glass batch materials in a combustion-heated, continuous, glass melting furnace to yield glass and combustion exhaust gases, wherein batch materials are continuously fed to the furnace and molten glass discharged therefrom and wherein the exhaust gases are employed to preheat batch materials prior to feeding them to the furnace, the improvement which comprises
- isolating the batch materials during preheating from the exhaust gases
- transferring heat from the exhaust gases to the batch materials through at least one heat pipe wherein a heat pipe working fluid is vaporized by heat of the exhaust gases and then condensed by giving up heat to the batch materials.
In a glassmaking apparatus comprising a combustion-heated, glass melting furnace, means for exhausting combustion gases, means for feeding glass batch materials to the furnace and means for discharging glass from the furnace, wherein means are provided for heating glass batch materials prior to feeding them to the furnace using heat from the combustion gases being exhausted from the furnace, the improvement which comprises
- an enclosure surrounding said glass batch feeding means isolated from said combustion gas exhaust means, and
- at least one heat pipe extending at one end into said combustion gas exhaust means and extending at its other end into said batch feeding means enclosure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.