Effect of glass-batch makeup on the melting process

The response of a glass batch to heating is determined by the batch makeup and in turn determines the rate of melting. Batches formulated for a high-alumina nuclear waste to be vitrified in an all-electric melter were heated at a constant temperature-increase rate to determine changes in melting behavior in response to the selection of batch chemicals and silica grain-size as well as the addition of heat-generating reactants. The type of batch materials and the size of silica grains determine how much, if any, primary foam occurs during melting. Small quartz grains, 5 (micro)m in size, caused extensive foaming because their major portion dissolved at temperatures <800 C, contributing to the formation of viscous glass-forming melt that trapped evolving batch gases. Primary foam did not occur in batches with larger quartz grains, ±75 (micro)m in size, because their major portion dissolved at temperatures >800 C when batch gases no longer evolved. The exothermal reaction of nitrates with sucrose was ignited at a temperature as low as 160 C and caused a temporary jump in temperature of several hundred degrees. Secondary foam, the source of which is oxygen from redox reactions, occurred in all batches of a limited composition variation involving five oxides, B2O3, CaO, Li2O, MgO, and Na2O. The foam volume at the maximum volume-increase rate was a weak function of temperature and melt basicity. Neither the batch makeup nor the change in glass composition had a significant impact on the dissolution of silica grains. The impacts of primary foam generation on glass homogeneity and the rate of melting in large-scale continuous furnaces have yet to be established via mathematical modeling and melter experiments.