The Stoke-on-Trent-based trade association for the UK ceramics industry has hit a ‘breakthrough’ milestone in a project aimed at exploring hydrogen as an alternative fuel for the sector.
Described as a ‘pivotal moment’ in the industry’s journey towards a sustainable future, Ceramics UK’s custom-built pilot kiln is now operating entirely on hydrogen and trials firing member-produced ceramic products using hydrogen have officially begun.
The ‘Demonstrating Hydrogen in the Ceramics Sector’ project is being run in partnership with Glass Futures, a not-for-profit research and technology organisation, at their new state-of-the-art R&D facility in St Helens.
Later this year, the team intend to demonstrate the ability to retrofit an existing methane-fuelled production kiln to operate on hydrogen.
Project lead Dr Andrew McDermott, who is deputy chief executive of Festival Park-based Ceramics UK, said: “Our groundbreaking work during Phase 1 of the project in 2022, believed to be a world first, demonstrated the technical feasibility of firing various ceramic products with hydrogen – a key decarbonisation option for the sector – without impacting product quality.
“The commissioning of the new pilot kiln to operate on 100 per cent hydrogen marks another major milestone in the project. The kiln is custom-built and highly instrumented, allowing us to study in detail the hydrogen firing of ceramics under a range of conditions.”
The project is supported by 13 ceramic manufacturing companies representing all subsectors of the UK ceramics industry, demonstrating the sector’s commitment to decarbonisation.
Ceramics UK CEO Robert Flello said: “This is a pivotal moment in our journey towards a sustainable future for the UK ceramics industry. The successful operation of the pilot kiln on 100 per cent hydrogen and the initiation of member product trials represent a significant milestone for the project and a crucial step towards a lower-carbon future for the sector.”
Funding for the project was awarded by the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero through Phase 2 of the Industrial Fuel Switching Competition. The initiative is part of the £1bn Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP), which supports the development of pre-commercial fuel switch technologies to help industry transition to lower-carbon fuels.
Great to see! This, along with Lucideon’s kilns (actually based in Staffordshire), one of which achieved the first 100% hydrogen-fired run last year (another world first), gives the ceramic industry options to de-risk the exploration of hydrogen as an alternative fuel.
Fantastic progress in finding a more cost-effective retrofit to gas.
Research work like this is essential to keeping c=the ceramics industry cost-effective and competitive, despite increased global energy prices.
Well done to all !