Design for resource and energy efficiency in ceramic kilns

The ceramics industry plays a substantial role in the EU economy, driven by 17 000 companies, employing over 240 000 people, and producing nearly EUR 30 billion in revenue. However, the industry is also a big user of energy. In fact, producing just one tonne of ceramic tiles requires 1.67 MWh of energy. The ceramic tile production processes are very energy intensive. Nearly EUR 1 500 million are spent each year just for natural gas needs in the Italian ceramic sector. If we could increase the energy efficiency for producing a square metre of tiles by 2-3 %, we could witness a huge reduction on the annual costs of natural gas consumption.

An output from DREAM is the development of innovative refractory and insulation materials for ceramic kilns. Project partners tested innovative material shapes and compositions that reduce heat transmission through the kiln walls. The result was a reduction of the superficial temperature of kilns by an average of 10 °C. Heat transmission losses in kilns account for about 15 % of the thermal energy spent to fire each kilogramme of tile. This heat accounts more or less to 75 kcal/kg above a specific consumption of 500 kcal/kg of product. By reducing the superficial temperature of kilns through the new refractory and coating materials, we reduced heat losses by an average of 1.4 %.