This Minecraft mod makes you able to smelt Sand into Glass in a blast furnace, which means you can smelt Sand at 2x speed.
Blast Furnaces are in real-world used to melt sand into glass so it would make sense if it was the same in Minecraft.

Configuration

You can configure this mod directly in-game or edit the JSON file config/blastingsand.json in your profile folder. Please note that any changes will require restarting Minecraft to take effect.

sand_list - List of Blocks you can blast into Glass

Smelting Sand in Blast Furnace

config screen

Smelting Sand in Blast Furnace

blasting red sand