PNNL

Abstract

The response of a glass batch to heating is determined by the batch makeup and in turn determines the rate of melting. Batches formulated for a high-alumina nuclear waste to be vitrified in an all-electric melter were heated at a constant temperature-increase rate to determine changes in melting behavior in response to the selection of batch chemicals and silica grain-size as well as the addition of heat-generating reactants. The type of batch materials and the size of silica grains determine how much, if any, primary foam occurs during melting. Small quartz grains, 5-?m in size, caused extensive foaming because their major portion dissolved at temperatures 800°C when batch gases no longer evolved. The exothermal reaction of nitrates with sucrose was ignited at a temperature as low as 160°C and caused a temporary jump in temperature of several hundred degrees. Secondary foam, the source of which is oxygen from redox reactions, occurred in all batches of a limited composition variation involving five oxides, B2O3, CaO, Li2O, MgO, and Na2O. The foam volume at the maximum volume-increase rate was a weak function of temperature and melt basicity. Neither the batch makeup nor the change in glass composition had a significant impact on the dissolution of silica grains. The impacts of primary foam generation on glass homogeneity and the rate of melting in large-scale continuous furnaces have yet to be established via mathematical modeling and melter experiments.