Full oxy-firing has been accepted as a cost-effective process for melting many types of glass with the benefit of reducing emissions such as NOx and particulates, while improving the operational flexibility. For a variety of reasons, there has been only limited use of oxy-firing in float glass melting tanks. One of which is the question of how to control the oxy-combustion system, including firing rate profile, burner location, and burner characteristics, so that the glass quality is not adversely affected. As float tanks are typically large, and the glass product has extremely stringent quality demands, the potential economic consequences of a glass tank producing low quality product has prevented the use of full oxy-combustion technology.
