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Show 1-2 In the most recent DOE-sponsored demonstration, a Corning, Inc. oxy-fuel combustion system was permanently installed on a Gallo Glass Co. melter in Modesto, CA. The Gallo plant is the nation's largest container glass plant. The world's first commercial vacuum pressure swing absorption (VPSA) system replaced the truck delivered liquid oxygen used initially. V P S A is an oxygen separation system that uses zeolite adsorbents to separate oxygen from nitrogen and the other components of air. The system, an advance on the widely used pressure swing adsorption system, consists of two adsorbent beds. As air passes into the first, nitrogen is adsorbed and oxygen passes through to be fed into the melter. While the first bed produces oxygen, the second is regenerated by purging the adsorbed nitrogen. After a specified period, the pressure swings and the beds reverse functions. Gallo's incentive for installation of oxy-fuel firing was environmental. Indeed, NOx emissions were reduced by over 8 0 % to one quarter of the new California standard for glass melters of four pounds of NOx/ton of glass produced. Emissions of C O, hydrocarbons and particulates were reduced as well. And, a fuel use decrease in the 2 0 % range was recorded, and C 0 2 emissions were reduced as well. In addition to reducing pollutant and C02 emissions and reducing fuel consumption , Gallo has realized additional benefits from the switch to oxy-fuel firing. Its use obviates the need for the checkers regenerator system because of the large reduction in exhaust gas volume. The checkers system, used on most glass melters, is capital intensive and must be rebuilt every five to ten years. Oxy-fuel firing also improves glass quality because of improved melter control. These benefits make oxygen enriched combustion a very attractive option for glass producers. Indeed, Gallo Glass is so pleased with the benefits realized from oxy-fuel firing that it is now converting all remaining melters at its plant to oxy-fuel. This is just a part of a "stampede" occurring in the glass industry. At the start of 1993, oxygen enriched combustion was being used on glass furnaces with a total capacity of 800 tons/day of glass. This figure is expected to increase over four-fold by the end of 1995. One beneficiary of the rush to oxy-fuel firing has been Praxair which has signed long term supply contracts generating revenues one thousand times greater than their D O E contract cost share. Industry Environmental Needs Drive D O E Solicitation The market for industrial combustion equipment in the 1990s will be shaped by the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA). Indeed, it is these regulations that have formed the basis for the planned D O E industrial combustion equipment solicitation. 2 I-2 |