Vertical shaft melting furnace and method of melting

Abstract

A vertical shaft melting furnace wherein meltable solids are charged to the upper region of a bed supported only by a fluid cooled support grid having openings smaller than the average diameter of the charged solids wherein submerged combustion is maintained in a melt pool below the bed of solids and combustion product gases of the submerged combustion are passed upwardly through the bed of solids preheating and melting a substantial portion of the solids forming melt which flows downwardly into the melt pool and partially melting the remaining portion of the solids reducing their size sufficiently to pass through the support grid openings into the melt pool. The apparatus and process of this invention provides improved melt quality with stable temperature and high homegeneity with increased specific production rate and increased unit production rate.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.