10 May Combustion by hydrogen is achieved for the first time in a ceramic kiln

05-10-2022

The ceramic industry must face the rest of the decarbonization in the coming years.

The main energy source, natural gas, generates CO2 emissions into the atmosphere that must be limited
from the year 2030 and be completely eliminated in the year 2050, so several alternatives are under study.

One of the most outstanding is the use of hydrogen, a gas that does not use polluting particles in its combustion and that can be created by renewable energy.

A few days ago, the Italian Iris Group announced the start-up of the world’s first factory with green hydrogen.

A photovoltaic plant (with a power of 2.5 MW) will be installed on the roof of the building and will be combined with an electrolyser and a storage system for the renewable hydrogen produced on site.”

In Castellón, the Institute of Ceramic Technology (ITC-AICE) has achieved, for the first time in its facilities, combustion using hydrogen in a ceramic kiln.

The study has been carried out in a combustion chamber adapted for this purpose.

In these first tests, controlled combustion has been achieved with conventional burners with mixtures of up to 20% hydrogen.

The next milestone of the project, scheduled for September 2022, aims to the controlled combustion of mixtures of natural gas and hydrogen at temperatures
required in the ceramic process, hoping to achieve combustion with 100% hydrogen.

The research team is made up of Dr. Salvador Ferrer and Dr. Ana Mezquita, ITC-AICE researchers, together with the professor at the Jaume I University of Castellón, Eliseo Monfort.

This study is part of the project “Experimental study on a pilot laboratory scale of the firing of ceramic materials using hydrogen as fuel (HIDROKER)” and is focused on the use of hydrogen as a direct source of thermal energy by combustion in the drying processes.