Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Robert Michael Eng

Aleksandar Georgi Slavejkov

Michael S Chen

Bryan Clair Hoke, Jr

Kevin Alan Lievre

Robert Dean Marchiando

Jerome L Glazer

Charles G Wensley

Julian Leonard Inskip

Bryan Clair Hoke

Charles Glen Wensley

Michael Shi-Kuan Chen

Jerome Leonard Glazer

A process and furnace for melting glass is set forth wherein the majority of the combustion energy over the melting zone of the furnace is provided by oxy-fuel combustion while a majority of the combustion energy over the fining zone of the furnace is provided by air-fuel combustion. In many cases, it will be preferable to provide greater than 70% and up to and including 100% of the combustion energy over the melting zone by oxy-fuel combustion and greater than 70% and up to and including 100% of the combustion energy over the fining zone by air-fuel combustion. By proper tailoring of the combustion space atmosphere through oxy-fuel and air-fuel firing, the present invention can result in an improvement in glass productivity and quality. The present invention can be applied in the construction of a new furnace or can be applied to existing air-fuel furnaces.

Glass melting process and furnace therefor with oxy-fuel combustion over melting zone and air-fuel combustion over fining zone

The present invention is an improved process for separating alcohols from ethers and/or hydrocarbon raffinate in an etherification process. The excess alcohol reactant, which forms azeotrope mixtures with the product ethers and C.sub.4 -C.sub.7 raffinate, is removed by passing the liquid azeotrope mixture over a pervaporation membrane which effectively breaks the azeotrope and permeates the alcohol with high flux and high selectivity. In a typical etherification process, one or more pervaporation membrane units can be located ahead of the ether/raffinate distillation step, in conjunction with the distillation step with a liquid side draw, after the distillation step, or a combination of any of the above. The present invention also provides an improved process for separating alcohols from ethers and/or hydrocarbon raffinate in an ether decomposition process for the production of high purity iso-alkene products. In this embodiment, one or more pervaporation membranes are used to recover alcohols from the decomposition product stream.

Pervaporation process for separating alcohols from ethers

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Irvine, CA, United States of America

Robert Michael Eng