The UK’s ceramics trade association – Ceramics UK – has hit a milestone in its project striving to demonstrate hydrogen in the sector.
Hailing a “landmark achievement”, it revealed a custom-built kiln has been commissioned and is now operating on 100% hydrogen operation, having been designed to explore the use of hydrogen as an alternative fuel for ceramic production. It marks the first time a pilot kiln of such a scale has been operated successfully on nothing but hydrogen fuel.
Trials of member-produced ceramic products being fired with hydrogen have now officially commenced too. Ceramics UK CEO, Robert Fello, explained it was a “pivotal moment” in the journey to wards a more sustainable future for the UK’s ceramics industry.
Deputy Chief Executive, Dr. Andrew McDermott, added that the commissioning of the new pilot kiln follows on from “groundbreaking work” carried out during the first phase, where they were able to demonstrate the technical feasibility of firing various ceramic products with 100% hydrogen.
McDermott continued: “The kiln is custom-built and highly-instrumented to allow us to study in detail the hydrogen firing of ceramics under a range of conditions. Later this year we intend to complement this work, by also demonstrating the ability to retrofit an existing methane-fuelled production kiln to operate on 100% hydrogen.”
