Patent ID: 8707740

Claim:
A submerged combustion glass manufacturing system comprising: a melter comprising a floor, a roof, a wall structure connecting the floor and roof, and an exhaust passage through the roof; one or more submerged combustion burners mounted in the floor and/or wall structure, the submerged combustion burners configured to discharge combustion products under a level of material being melted in the melter and create turbulent conditions in substantially all of the material; and an exhaust structure fluidly connecting the exhaust passage with an exhaust stack, the exhaust structure comprising a barrier preventing exhaust material from contacting the atmosphere, the barrier defining an exhaust chamber having an interior surface, the exhaust chamber having a cross-sectional area greater than that of the exhaust stack but less than the melter, the barrier configured to maintain temperature and pressure in the exhaust structure at values sufficient to substantially prevent condensation of exhaust material on the interior surface and maintain any molten glass contacting the interior surface molten so that it flows back down the interior surface of the barrier back into the melter, wherein the barrier of the exhaust structure comprises a refractory lined metal layer, the refractory comprising the interior surface of the barrier, the metal layer having one or more air-cooled surfaces, and wherein the metal layer is one or more austenitic nickel-chromium super alloys, and the air-cooled surfaces are steel.