Achieve excellence in your production and process efficiency with Linde.
The art of making glass is over 5,000 years old.
At Linde, we aim to improve this ancient craft in a way that boosts productivity and quality while helping the glass industry meet today’s goals of energy conservation, decarbonization, and emission abatement.
With our full range of industrial gases, technologies, and equipment, we can help improve glass quality, plus help save you money by offering ways to burn less fuel more efficiently.
Reduce Energy Consumption and Carbon Footprint
Linde's OPTIMELT™ Thermochemical Regenerator technology, an advanced heat recovery technology for oxyfuel fired glass furnaces, is based on a unique waste heat recovery concept using endothermic chemical reaction.
Heat stored in a regenerator checker during the flue gas exhausting cycle is recovered during the reforming cycle by preheating and reforming a mixture of natural gas and recycled flue gas.
The result is a net reduction in energy consumption by up to 30% versus oxy-fuel and air-fuel glass furnaces, respectively, as well as a corresponding reduction in fuel-based Scope 1 CO2 emissions.
Self-cleaning mechanism in the OPTIMELT TCR system
In conventional air-fuel furnaces, regenerators are prone to plugging due to formation of salt deposits in the checker channels.
Alkali vapors in the flue gas, such as sodium hydroxide (NaOH), react with sulfur dioxide (SO2) and oxygen to form sodium sulfate (Na2SO4) and other species, which condense and form liquid and solid deposits on heat exchanger surfaces.
Even with periodic cleaning the plugging tendency increases, and heat recovery performance deteriorates significantly.
However, OPTIMELT thermochemical regenerators have shown minimal deposit accumulation even after several years of commercial operation. The primary reason – sodium sulfate deposited during the heating cycle is being vaporized during the reforming cycle.
Laboratory tests indicated that evaporation rates of Na2SO4 were significantly higher than its deposition rates. This ‘self-cleaning’ mechanism offers the long-term potential of lower maintenance requirements relative to conventional regenerators.
OPTIMELT™ TCR technology is ideal for glass producers who:
- Need to comply with stringent NOₓ emission limits (e.g., <0.5 kg NOₓ per metric ton of glass).
- Are focused on reducing energy consumption and costs.
- Operate furnaces at high temperatures.
- Are planning to convert from air-fuel to oxy-fuel combustion.
- Have limited space available for retrofit installations.
- Aim to increase the specific pull or productivity of their furnaces.
Collaboration that Shines in Glass Manufacturing
At Linde, we believe in building strong, lasting relationships with our customers and a close collaboration is crucial for successfully helping them reach their goals.
“At Leerdam Crisal Glass, one of our strategic objectives is decarbonization. Linde’s OPTIMELT™ technology is helping us and the broader glass community take meaningful steps toward decarbonizing the energy-intensive melting process,” states Marco van Valburg, Director of Sustainable Manufacturing at LC Glass.
Achieving such transformative progress requires strong collaboration, something that Linde prides itself on.
“The close and constructive partnership between Linde and LC Glass, spanning design, implementation, and optimization, has been key to the successful operation of the OPTIMELT system for more than seven years,” van Valburg adds.
Rely on Our Experts
Linde has been supporting customers in the glass industry for over 80 years.
We work closely with our customers to understand their challenges and team up with our glass experts to identify cost-effective approaches that meet their needs.
Visit us at www.lindeus.com/glass or call us at 1-844-44LINDE to learn more.
