Glass production is an energy-intensive process where combustion in pure oxygen can offer advantages over the traditional air process. Examples include reduced NOx and particulate emissions, improved furnace performance and increased heat transfer. This paper presents a one-dimensional mathematical model that solves mass, momentum, and energy balances for a planar membrane module of oxygen transport. The main modeling parameters describing the oxygen surface kinetics and the microstructural morphology of the support were calibrated on data obtained experimentally on a 30-μm thick La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ (LSCF) membrane, supported on a 0.7-mm porous LSCF structure. The model is then used to design and evaluate the performance of an oxygen transport membrane module integrated into a glass melting plant. Three different oxy-fuel glass furnaces based on membrane separation technology and swing adsorption systems were compared against an air reference unit. The analysis shows that the most efficient oxyfuel configuration with membranes reduces the energy demand by around 22% compared to the air reference case.
A preliminary economic evaluation shows that membranes can reduce the overall costs of glass production compared to oxy-fuel systems based on standard vacuum swing adsorption technologies.