CERAMICS
The Sector
Ceramics manufacturing, whether that's brick, tile, tableware or technical ceramics, runs on two distinct thermal stages. Drying removes moisture from the formed clay or granulated material after it is moulded and before it is loaded into the kiln, usually at temperatures up to 90 °C. Firing is the high-temperature stage, up to 1250 °C, where the product gains its final strength and characteristics.
Firing is also where ceramics differs from most other energy-intensive sectors. A large percentage of its carbon emissions don't come from just burning the gas fuel, they come from the chemical decomposition of carbonates in the raw material itself during firing. That's a process emission, not a combustion emission, and no amount of fuel switching removes it.
Decarbonisation in Ceramics
This dual-emissions reality matters because it shapes what's realistic right now. Electrifying kilns is extremely difficult: the flame itself is often part of the chemistry that gives the product its properties, oxygen availability and flame characteristics influence material transformation, and for many products there's currently no commercially viable low-carbon kiln at production scale. Full kiln electrification, where it's even possible, means replacing the kiln outright, not retrofitting it.
Drying is a different story. It typically runs at far lower temperatures than firing, and in batch dryers specifically, a large proportion of the heat generated, up to 90% in some cases is exhausted rather than reused. That's recoverable heat technically and commercially proven to be reused back into the process.
What Gets Missed
Public and policy attention tends to fixate on the kiln, because that's the dramatic, headline part of the process. That means the drying stage, and the heat already available from the dryer and kiln exhaust, gets far less attention than it deserves, despite being the part of the process where a heat pump can be installed today and start paying back immediately.
The other thing that gets missed is the process emissions point itself. A business that fuel-switches its kiln and assumes it's solved its ceramics emissions problem hasn't accounted for the portion that comes from the raw materials, not the gas burner. Credible decarbonisation planning for ceramics has to treat these as two separate problems.
How We Bring the Change
We're not going to tell you we can electrify your kiln or capture your carbon emissions, because for ceramics processes, this is technology is not yet available.
What we do is find the heat that's already being wasted around the kiln, in exhaust streams and drying chambers, and put it to work through heat recovery and high temperature heat pumps, delivering a real payback now rather than a promise tied to hydrogen infrastructure, carbon capture or next-generation kiln technology that's still years away. It's a smaller claim than "decarbonise your kiln", and it's one we can deliver today.
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