In my book, I read that broken glass pieces are reused in the production of glass, known to be cullet. This on one hand saves the production cost and also reduces the production temperature.
My question is: how does adding cullet reduce the production temperature? I see no reason why the materials would react any differently with or without cullet.
No expert here, but cullet would react faster than sand with the alkali, developing into a more uniform fluid that can be mixed at a (slightly) lower temperature so as to eventually dissolve the sand.
It is like beginning the reaction to produce glass at 25% (or however much cullet is used), rather than 0%, so that raising the temperature is not needed to to speed up the reaction. Lower temperatures can be used without needing to increase the time, and thus wear and tear on the equipment can be reduced.
So it's not that the cullet causes a reduction in temperature, but rather allows it.
