Patent ID: 8904824

Claim:
A process for melting glass in a glass melting furnace, the furnace comprising a channel-shaped melting tank, the process comprising: introducing batch materials at an upstream end of the channel-shaped melting tank, heating the furnace by burners distributed on walls along a length of the channel-shaped melting tank downstream of the batch materials introduction point to produce a melt which flows through the channel-shaped melting tank toward a melt discharge point downstream of the burners, whereby at least 65% of combustion energy is produced by oxy-fuel combustion, causing at least 65% of the flue gas in the furnace to counterflow in the opposite direction to the flow of the melt, towards flue gas discharge upstream of the burners, discharging the counterflowing flue gas so as to maintain dynamic sealing with respect to a surrounding atmosphere, producing the counterflowing flue gas at a volumetric rate such that a volume of an atmosphere above molten glass in the furnace and the volumetric rate of counterflowing flue gas produced cause an average residence time of the counterflowing flue gas inside the furnace of from 10 to 40 seconds, recovering a molten glass at the downstream end of the furnace, and regulating an amount of the flue gas discharged downstream of the burners according to a nitrogen content detected in the flue gas upstream.