Air Products provides industry-leading solutions, guided by the industry’s challenges, and fueled by innovation. We strive to create long-term value through sustainable glass melting and processing technologies. With decades of experience and leadership in combustion technology, we’ve addressed the industry’s needs for burner durability with low maintenance, low NOx emissions, high flame radiation, foam reduction, and energy efficiency. Air Products continues to build on these solutions to help glass manufacturers to further lower their carbon footprint, with near-term and future-focused decarbonization pathways.

 

 

Air Products Integrated Oxygen Supply/Cleanfire® HRx™ combustion system combines the advantages of economical onsite oxygen supply, integrated with an optimized HRx burner, in a full oxy-fuel installation. Numerous commercial installations globally have shown the system to be an efficient, reliable, and cost-effective first step on the path towards decarbonization. It has yielded significant CO2 emissions for glass manufacturers, including lower power consumption, reduced specific fuel consumption, and favorable crown and bottom temperatures.

 
The Integrated System is a key component of our stepwise approach, and when combined with our energy recovery technology, smart technologies, and blue and green hydrogen supply and combustion expertise, provides a clear path to reduce the overall energy consumption and carbon footprint of the glass manufacturing process.

 

 

Air Products SMART Technology for Data Monitoring and Process Control

Our HRx burner systems feature Air Products SMART Technology which uses state-of-the-art on-burner diagnostic sensors and wireless communications technology to monitor and control our gases and equipment as well as track key process parameters. The on-board sensors are a valuable tool to help furnace operators optimize the burner setting for maximum flame staging, foam reduction, or NOx control.

 

 

The Air Products Tin Bath Monitoring and Optimization system uses AI algorithms to analyze hundreds of process variables, including defect data, in real-time to drive down tin-based defects and/or to optimize hydrogen and nitrogen consumption within the tin bath. A digital twin of the tin bath runs alongside the actual process and provides operators with the information they need for optimum real-time control. As the condition of the furnace changes over time, machine learning allows the program to self-update without human intervention.

 

 

Hydrogen Fuel Blending

Air Products has conducted extensive lab testing using the HRx burner with various hydrogen and natural gas fuel blends. The results show the HRx burner performs well with H2-blended fuels and requires no change in design with H2 blends as high as 50% and only minor changes with H2 blends between 50-100%. Flame properties such as flame length and NOx emissions levels can be optimized by using the HRx burner’s oxygen staging feature which is effective even with H2 blended fuels. This is an important result for glass manufacturers because the burners can remain the same, with only flow skid changes required to accommodate the H2-blended fuel supply. Additionally, Air Products is establishing critical blue and green hydrogen production hubs throughout the world to help our customers meet their carbon reduction goals.

 

 

 

 

The Air Products Advantage
Air Products is a global, leading industrial gas supplier. For decades, primary glass producers have turned to Air Products’ continuously evolving portfolio of solutions to improve combustion and enable additional benefits, including increased glass production, reduced fuel consumption and emissions, and enhanced glass quality. Processed glass producers rely on us for safe and efficient supply and use of nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, helium, and argon for applications involved in atmosphere control, forming, assembly, and recycling of products.

 
Let us help optimize your glass production and decarbonize your process, as we have done for many furnaces all over the world. To help you understand which of our industry-leading technologies is a good fit for your operating goals, contact us about a demonstration in our pilot-scale Advanced Clean Energy lab.