A glass briquette and forming system

Abstract

A method of producing a glass briquette in which reclaimed glass fines are mixed with a binder material to create a mixture. The mixture is subsequently compressed in a chamber to form a briquette having the shape of the interior of the chamber. The reclaimed glass includes glass fines of a size of smaller than 10 mm. The method is performed without melting the glass fines such that the resulting briquette contains the discrete glass fines held in the binder and may be used as a furnace ingredient for later glass product production. The glass briquette may contain other batch ingredients required in the production of glass.

1 - 51 . (canceled) 
     
     
         52 . A method of producing a glass briquette comprising the steps:
 a) mixing reclaimed glass with a binder material to create a mixture; and subsequently   b) compressing said mixture in a chamber to form a briquette having the shape of the interior of the chamber;   wherein the reclaimed glass comprises glass fines of a size of smaller than 10 mm and the steps a) and b) are performed at a temperature below the melting point of the glass fines.   
     
     
         53 . A method according to  claim 52 , wherein the chamber of step b) is formed from a pair of opposing cavities. 
     
     
         54 . A method according to  claim 53 , wherein step b) is performed using a press comprising a pair of counter-rotating rollers, and wherein one of said pair of opposing cavities is provided as a pocket on the outer circumference of each roller. 
     
     
         55 . A method according to  claim 54 , wherein each roller comprises a plurality of pockets. 
     
     
         56 . A method according to  claim 52 , wherein the binder material is sprayed onto the reclaimed glass in step a). 
     
     
         57 . A method according to  claim 52 , wherein the binder material comprises a lignosulfonate. 
     
     
         58 . A method according to  claim 52 , wherein the binder material comprises sodium silicate. 
     
     
         59 . A method according to  claim 52 , wherein the mixing of step a) comprises mixing in a ploughshare mixer. 
     
     
         60 . A method according to  claim 52 , further comprising the step
 c) crushing reclaimed glass to provide glass fines of a size of smaller than 10 mm;   wherein step c) is performed prior to step a).   
     
     
         61 . A method according to  claim 52 , further comprising the step
 d) separating any loose material from the briquette formed in step b).   
     
     
         62 . A method according to  claim 52 , wherein the mixture comprises from 2-5% by weight of binder material. 
     
     
         63 . A method according to  claim 52 , wherein all steps are performed at a temperature below 500° C. 
     
     
         64 . A method according to  claim 52 , further comprising the step
 e) transferring the briquette formed in step b) to an oven for drying.   
     
     
         65 . A glass briquette comprising a compressed mixture of reclaimed glass and from 1-10% by weight of a binder material, wherein the reclaimed glass comprises glass fines of a size of smaller than 10 mm 
     
     
         66 . A glass briquette according to  claim 65 , wherein the mixture comprises 4% by weight of a binder material. 
     
     
         67 . A glass briquette according to  claim 65 , wherein the reclaimed glass comprises glass fines of a size of smaller than 2 mm or 1 mm. 
     
     
         68 . A glass briquette according to  claim 65 , wherein the binder material comprises a lignosulfonate. 
     
     
         69 . A glass briquette according to  claim 65 , further comprising silicone dioxide, sodium carbonate, calcium oxide or a source thereof within the compressed mixture. 
     
     
         70 . A glass briquette according to  claim 69 , which comprises from about 15-60% by weight of reclaimed glass. 
     
     
         71 . A glass briquette according to of  claim 69 , which further comprises one or more additional additives. 
     
     
         72 . A glass briquette according to  claim 71 , wherein the one or more additional actives are selected from aluminium oxide, antimony oxide, arsenic trioxide, barium, barium oxide, boron oxide, cerium (IV) oxide, cobalt oxide, copper oxide, ferric oxide, iron, lanthanum oxide, lead oxide, magnesia, magnesium oxide, nickel oxide, selenium oxide, selenites, selenates, silver oxide, sodium chloride, sodium nitrate, sodium sulfate, sulfur trioxide and tellurium oxide. 
     
     
         73 . A glass briquette according to  claim 71 , which comprises less than 10% by weight of additional actives. 
     
     
         74 . A method of producing a glass briquette comprising the steps:
 a) mixing reclaimed glass comprising glass fines of a size of smaller than 10 mm with silicon dioxide, sodium carbonate and calcium oxide;   b) mixing the product of a) with a binder material to create a mixture; and subsequently   c) compressing said mixture in a chamber to form a briquette having the shape of the interior of the chamber.   
     
     
         75 . A method according to  claim 74 , wherein steps a), b) and c) are performed at ambient temperature, the method further comprising: transferring the briquette formed in step c) to an oven for drying.