Chemical Process Industries Inorganic 2

Course No. 501

TOPICS:
• Glass Industry
• Ceramic
 Glass Industry
SCOPE

➢ Type of glasses
➢ Raw materials and their sources
➢ Chemical reactions during manufacture
➢ Furnaces used
➢ Finishing operations
➢ Special glasses and their composition and applications
 GLASS
DEFINITION:
Physically as a rigid, undercooled liquid having no definite melting
point and a sufficiently high viscosity (greater than 10^13poises) to
prevent crystallization.

UNDERCOOLED:
Liquid which is cooled to a stage where its viscosity is so great that
molecules do not move freely enough to form crystals.

Chemically as the union of the non-volatile inorganic oxides resulting

from the decomposition and fusing of the alkali and alkaline earth
compounds, sand, and other glass constituents.
Glass is a completely vitrified product or at least such a product
with a relatively small amount of non-vitreous material in suspension.

VITRIFICATION:
In vitrification process, high temperature (typically between 1100°C-
1600°C) is employed to melt the material into a liquid which, on
cooling, transforms to an amorphous, glass-like solid.
COMPOSITION:
MAJOR INGREDIENTS:

• Sand(SiO2)
• Soda ash (Na2CO3)
• Lime (Ca(OH)2
TYPES OF GLASS
Commercial glass falls in to six different classes:

• Vitreous silica
• Alkali silicates
• Lime glass
• Lead glass
• Borosilicate glass
• Special glass
Vitreous silica:
A glass made by fusing pure silica without a flux. Glass made exclusively of
silica is known as silica glass, or fused silica. Silica glass is used where high
service temperature, very high thermal shock resistance, high chemical
durability, very low electrical conductivity, and good ultraviolet transparency
are desired. It is also referred to as QUARTZ GLASS.

Use:
• furnace tubes
• lighting tubes
• melting crucibles.

Properties:
• Thermally resistant
• Chemically resistant
• High softening point and low expansion
• Transparent to ultraviolet radiation
Alkali silicates
These are water-soluble. The sand and soda ash are simply melted
together, and the products designated as sodium silicates, having a
range of composition from Na20·Si02 to Na20·4Si02 .Silicate of soda
solution, also known as water glass.
Uses:
• as an adhesive for paper
• in the pulp and paper industry
• egg preservation
• Detergents
Properties:
• colorless glassy or white powders.
• soluble in water
Lime glass
The largest tonnage of glass made today and serves for the
manufacture of containers of all kinds, flat glass (window, plate, wire
and figured), tumblers and tableware.
Chemical composition:
• Si02, 69 to 72%
• CaO, 12.5 to 13.5%
• Na20, 13 to 15%
Properties:
• Poor resistant to heat (500-600 0C)
• Sufficiently viscous so that they do not devitrify and
• Yet are not too viscous to be workable at reasonable temperatures.
 Lead glass
Lead glass consist of:
• silica + lead oxide (PbO) + potassium oxide (K2O) + soda (Na2O) + zinc oxide (ZnO)
+ alumina.
• Lead contents as high as 92 per cent (density 8.0, refractive index 2.2) have been
made.
• Because of its high density, it has a high refractive index, making the look of
glassware more brilliant (called "crystal", though of course it is a glass and not a
crystal).
Properties:
• It has a high elasticity,
• It is also more workable in the factory, but cannot stand heating very well
• This kind of glass is also more fragile than other glasses
• Easier to cut
Uses:
• making glassware "ring".
• Lead glasses are of very great importance in optical work
• neon-sign tubing
Borosilicate:
• borosilicate glass contains substantial amounts of silica (SiO2) and boron
oxide (B2O3)
• typically composed of
70–80 wt% SiO2,
7–13 wt% of B2O3
4–8 wt% Na2O or K2O and
2–8 wt% of Al2O3
• Glass containing 7–13 wt% of B2O3 is known as low-
borate borosilicate glass, and is mainly used to produce chemical
apparatus, lamps, and tube envelopes.
• Glasses containing 15–25% B2O3, is known as high-borate borosilicate
glass. High-borate borosilicate glass is also known as leachable alkali-
borosilicate glass with an optimum composition of 62.7 wt% SiO2,
26.9 wt% of B2O3, 6.6 wt% Na2O, and 3.5 wt% of Al2O3
Properties:
• low expansion coefficients
• Superior resistance to shock
• excellent chemical stability
• high electrical resistance.

Uses:
• baking dishes
• laboratory glassware
• pipe lines
• high tension insulators
• washers.
Special Glass:
It includes:
1. Colored glass
2. Translucent glass
3. Safety or laminated glass
4. Fiber glass
5. High silica glass
6. Photosensitive glass
7. Phosphate and borate glass
Colored glass:
Colored glass may be produced in three ways:
• By absorption of light
• By colloidal particles
• By microscopic or larger particles

1. Absorption of light:
• Color is produced by the absorption of certain light frequencies by agents in
solution in the glass.
• The coloring agents are the oxides of the transition elements (Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe,
Co, Ni, and Cu.)
Color chemical structural environment
differences in state of oxidation.
NiO produce brown
color in sodium lead
glass while produce
heliotrope (pink-purple
color) in potash glass.
Chromium oxides produces color from
green to orange depending upon the
proportion whether it is basic or acidic
2. Colloidal particles
Color is produced by colloidal particles precipitated within an
originally colorless glass by heat-treatment.
• Example: The precipitation of colloidal gold producing gold
Ruby glass.

3. Microscopic or larger Particles:

Color is produced by microscopic or larger particles
which may be colored themselves such as selenium
reds (Se02) used in traffic lights, lantern globes, etc.,
or the particles may be colorless, producing opals.
OPAL OR TRANSLUCENT
• Glasses are clear when molten but become opalescent as the glass is worked
into form, owing to the separation and suspension of minute particles in the
medium which disperse the light passing through them.
• They are important commercially as diffusing media in illumination, as
containers, and as construction material.

SAFETY OR LAMINATED
• Glasses may be defined as of a composite structure consisting of two layers
of glass with an interleaf of plastic, plasticized polyvinyl butyral resin.
• When the glass is broken, the fragments are held in place by the interlayer.
MODERN FIBER GLASS
Although-not a, new product, owes its' enhanced usefulness to its extreme
fineness gathered into a mat, made into insulation, tape, air filters, and a 'great
variety of other products such as pipe with plastic bond.

PHOTOSENSITIVE GLASS
It makes possible to print three-dimensional colored photographic images
within glass articles.
Photosensitive metals, such as gold, silver, and copper, and sensitizers, are
added to conventional silicate glasses containing at least 5 percent alkali metal
oxide
Conventional glass-melting and forming methods are used with the batch.
A black-and-white negative is placed on the sensitized glass and exposed to
ultraviolet light. The picture is developed by heating the glass to the annealing
temperature or above.
PHOSPHATE GLASS
• It contains phosphorous pentoxide as a major ingredient wholly or partially
displacing silica.
• An important property of phosphate glass is its ability to resist hydrofluoric acid,
for example, in fluorinations, Sight glasses for the handling of uranium hexafluoride in the
separation of uranium isotopes for making atomic bombs are made from phosphate glass.
• Phosphate glass is also used in special optical, ultraviolet, heat-absorbing, and
fluorescent glasses.
RAW MATERIALS
Silica, soda ash, limestone.
In addition to these, there is a heavy consumption of salt cake, lead oxide, pearl
ash (potassium carbonate), saltpeter, borax, boric acid, arsenic trioxide, feldspar,
and fluorspar, together with a great variety of metallic oxides, carbonates, and the
other salts required for colored glass.
SAND
For glass manufacture should be almost pure quartz. Its iron content should not
exceed 0.045% for tableware or 0.015% for optical glass, as iron affects adversely
the color of most glass.(it will give pale green color )
SODA
Na20, is principally supplied by dense soda ash, Na2C03. Other sources are
sodium bicarbonate, salt cake, and sodium nitrate. Useful in oxidizing iron and
accelerating the melting.
LIME:
Sources for lime (CaO) are limestone and burnt lime from dolomite,
CaCO3·MgCO3

FELDSPARS
• Have the general formula R20.Al203.6SiO2, where R20 represents Na20 or K20
or a mixture of these two. They have many advantages over most other
materials as a source of aluminum oxide because they are
• cheap • Lower the melting
• pure point of the glass
• Retard devitrification
• fusible
• and are composed entirely of glass forming oxides.
BORAX
• a minor ingredient, supplies the glass with both sodium oxide and boric oxide. Though
seldom employed in window or plate glass, borax is now in common use in certain
types of container glass.
• It has high fluxing power i.e reduce the processing temperature of silica
• Lowers the expansion coefficient
• increases chemical durability.

Salt cake (Na2SO4)

a minor ingredient of glass, and also other sulfates, such as ammonium and barium
sulfates, are encountered frequently in all types of glass.
Salt cake is said to remove the troublesome scum from tank furnaces.
Carbon should be used with sulfates to reduce them to sulfites.
Arsenic trioxide may be added to facilitate the removal of bubbles.
Nitrates of either sodium or potassium serve to oxidize iron and make it less
noticeable in the finished glass.
Cullet
Cullet is the crushed glass from imperfect articles, trim or otherwise waste glass.
It facilitates the melting and utilizes waste. It may be as low as 10% of the charge
or as high as 80%.

Refractory blocks
• For the glass industry have been developed especially because of the severe
conditions encountered here.
• Electrocast alumina, zirconia-alumina, mullite, 'mullite-alumina, magnesia-
alumina, and chrome-alumina combinations are typical of these for glass tanks.
• Support high temperatures, thermal strength