US producer of industrial gases, Praxair, Inc., has signed contracts with German glassmaker Heye-Glas and Italian ceramic tile producer Smalticeram, for the supply of oxygen plants and advanced oxy-fu…
US producer of industrial gases, Praxair, Inc., has signed contracts with German glassmaker Heye-Glas and Italian ceramic tile producer Smalticeram, for the supply of oxygen plants and advanced oxy-fuel combustion technology for glass melting. As part of its integrated approach to serving glass customers, Praxair, the largest industrial gases company in North and South America, with annual sales of more than US$ 4 billion, has signed a contract with Heye-Glas, one of the largest German container glass manufacturers. The German company is to be supplied with combustion burners and computer modelling services to optimise furnace design, as well as a cryogenic air separation plant to supply 285 tonnes per day of oxygen. Heye-Glas will use 100% oxygen in two of its furnaces that produce 500 tonnes per day of glass. The oxy-fuel combustion process, scheduled to start-up in one furnace in June and the second furnace in December, will help the company lower capital and operating costs. Praxair“s proprietary oxy-fuel burners also will help Heye-Glas significantly reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. For Smalticeram, a ceramic tile producer based in Reggio Emilia, Italy, Praxair“s regional company SIAD is supplying oxy-fuel combustion burners and a 25 tonne-per-day oxygen vacuum pressure swing absorption (VPSA) plant. Smalticeram will use the burners and oxygen in the manufacture of ceramic frit, or enamel glass. Scheduled to start up in May, the on-site VPSA system will replace liquid oxygen deliveries to Smalticeram“s facility and is one of Praxair“s new, compact VPSA plants for customers requiring lower oxygen volumes. VPSA systems use patented absorbent technology to separate oxygen from air. Praxair introduced VPSA advanced air separation technology in 1989 and has contracted more than 100 systems at customer sites worldwide.