HORN Glass Industries AG products

Due to its high flexibility and its low energy consumption the regenerative end fired furnace is the working horse of the glass industry. Most mass produced glass products such as bottles and containers of all kind, tableware and glass fibre can be produced with a minimum of fossil fuel firing and thus carbon dioxide emission. Its typical melting capacity is 30 – 500 t/d, in some cases up to 700 t/d can be achieved. Limitations in furnace size result from flame length and crown span width, especially of the burner ports.

Recuperators for small furnaces, i.e. up to 80 t/d are double shell recuperators. For melting capacities between 100 to 450 t/d tube bundle recuperators are used. The air preheating output of recuperators is far below the output of regenerators. That is why the energy consumption of a furnace with recuperators is relatively high. An advantage, however, is the higher flue gas temperature enabling energy recovery possibilities like a steam turbine generating electric power. The continuous preheating of the air and the total separation of combustion air and flue gas leading to a more clean and stable combustion. This leads to better glass qualities. The specific melting capacity is lower than that of an oxyfuel or regeneratively heated furnace due to lower flame temperature and consequent worse heat transfer.