Dr. MARIAN KLISCH
Head of R&D
Forglass Sp. z o.o., PL
Bio
Marian Klisch was born on 22 August 1955 in Zary in western Poland. In 1979 he graduated from AGH University of Science & Technology in Krakow. In 1989 he received a PhD in chemical technology from the same university. During his over 40-year professional career, he worked at a glass research institute, university and glassworks producing tableware, where he was the technical director. Since 2017, he has been associated with Forglass, where he is the director of research and development. He is the author and co-author of many patents in such distant areas as electrochromic coatings on glass, biomaterials, glass-to-metal and glass-stone macrocomposites, refractory materials, granulation of glass batches, glass furnace and glass melting and of course mixing electrode.
Presentation
Mixing electrode (Electrode & Bubbler All in One)
The Forglass mixing electrode (ME) is a tool that actually turns a glass furnace into a chemical reactor, in which the operator can influence the course of reactions and phenomena that make up the melting process and thus significantly accelerate it. ME systems enable the adaptation of increased shares of electrical power in fossil operated furnaces up to 50% without changing the rules of their operation, but with a significant improvement in their efficiency. The wide range of available operating parameters of ME systems (distribution of power and gas flow rates) provide previously unknown possibilities of quick and precise impact on the melting process. This is primarily expected during pull change, composition of glass or batch change, or troubleshooting. The synergistic interaction of vertically directed convection currents forced by ME systems with natural currents generated by density gradients significantly accelerates the processes of batch-to-glass conversion, sand dissolution and gas bubble removal, resulting in a product with higher chemical and thermal homogeneity at each of these stages. ME is not simply the sum of the functionality and advantages and disadvantages of standard electrodes and bubblers operating separately. The delivery of hot glass activated by ME systems accelerates the slowest reactions controlled by diffusion. The convective energy dissipation from vicinity of electrodes prevents refractory materials from overheating and directed the energy to the regions where it is actually needed, which is important in hybrid furnace. Placing gas release points at a height of 500 – 700 mm above the bottom also definitively removes the risk of erosive impact on the bottom often observed in the case of bubblers mounted in the bottom.