Patent ID: 7373791

Claim:
A method of melting glass in a furnace, wherein a glass batch composition was transported to a glass melting furnace, the glass batch composition was melted in the furnace, and an exhaust stream comprising one or more volatile components was removed from the furnace, the improvements comprising: (a) mixing a stream comprising a predetermined composition of particulate glass batch materials with dilution air; (b) intermixing the mixed stream from step (a) with the exhaust stream, whereby at least a portion of said one or more volatile components is transferred from the exhaust stream to at least a portion of the particulate glass batch materials; (c) cooling the intermixed stream from step (b) by introducing additional dilution air; (d) separating the particulate glass batch materials from the intermixed stream from step (c); and (e) feeding the separated particulate glass batch composition into the glass melting furnace, wherein the separated particulate glass batch composition constitutes a major portion of glass batch for the glass melting furnace.