CERAMIC TILE’S ENERGY STORY

THE HOT TOPIC

Ceramic tile’s pursuit of sustainable energy

By the time a fully loaded Jumbo 747 taxis, takes off and reaches its cruising altitude, it would have consumed almost 19,000 litres of aviation fuel. This marks the most energy intensive phase of its flight. Similarly, the firing of ceramic tiles is its most energy intensive phase as the temperatures reach almost 1,200 °C in the kiln.

To reach such high temperatures, the industry has been using fossil fuels to fire these kilns. Frequent energy shocks and the push to go greener has been forcing these industries to adopt renewable energy sources.

Hydropower has been one that has been favoured widely. Biofuels is another source that is being considered. Energy generated by wind and solar can also be considered.

The industry needs to move away from fossil fuels for a variety of reasons. One of course is to reduce polluting the environment and the other is to ensure consistent supply of energy without any future shocks. But there are challenges that needs to be met if alternate sources are adopted. The challenge has always been to provide enough energy to fire the kilns to reach temperatures of 1200°C.

One is consistency. Relying on solar and wind energy is challenging. Not only are they consistently available, but the technology also to store energy generated from these sources is still under development. Recent developments in solar energy generation and storage has enabled the factories to use 100% of the energy generated. Solar power farms are gaining popularity as climate change accelerates more availability of solar power. The grids to transport energy thus generated are unable to handle as they are old and legacy grids. Until the time that the grids are updated, it will be a challenge to adopt these sources of energy.

Hydrogen gas is a good alternative to fossil fuels, but storage of hydrogen is very risky. Fiandre S.pA., a leading ceramic tile manufacture from Modena, Italy, has ventured into producing green hydrogen and using it to fire their kilns, an excellent initiative. Though the adoption to 100% is phased, at least it provides a fantastic solution. If successful, it can be adopted by other manufacturers as well.

Geothermal energy could be another source. It will not only be able to provide consistent supply of energy, but also sufficient energy to fire the kilns. There is a lot of study being done in harnessing energy from geothermal sources. It will be interesting to see if the ceramic tile industry will be seriously looking at adopting energy from Geothermal sources. It’s not only aviation that is looking for a good source for alternate energy, but also the ceramic tile industry that is serious in its search for an alternate source.

Stay
Connected

Shamanna Kelamangalam
Dale Kempster