Energy Efficient, Low CO2 Refractories for the Foundation Industries

PSR is a leading manufacturer of refractories and engineered glass conditioning systems for the container glass industry, where exports sales account for much of the business. PSR falls within multiple foundation industries (ceramics & glass), where its operations are energy intensive.

Current refractories manufacturing methods include long firing cycles where it is believed that substantial (\>10%) energy savings and corresponding reduction in CO2 emissions could be achieved by reducing the lengths of firing cycles.

This project aims to find a cost-effective solution to reduce energy consumption in the manufacturing process of ceramic refractories. The addition of dopants to densify the material will be investigated to enable firing at lower temperatures or for shorter times, reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Based on a literature review we believe that \>10% savings are achievable. Study of refractories with dopant additions will be studied by chemical, physical and thermo-mechanical testing.

This project will benefit PSR through knowledge transfer with partners, and opportunities to co-create new concepts; transfer best practice through this industry - academia partnership; and improve the energy efficiency of the manufacturing processes. Furthermore, there are potential savings across the UK and global refractories industries if this technology were licensed / applied more widely. A 10% energy and CO2 saving across the relevant products within the global refractories industry, would save an estimated 0.5-5 MT / year, even with only limited uptake:- China's refractories industry alone emitted 55MT CO2 in 2010 (Hu & Kavan, 2014).

If PSR were able to reduce each firing time cycle by 10%, which we believe achievable, this would reduce direct PSR's CO2 emissions, lowering energy costs and improving energy efficiency, environmental sustainability and productivity. Most importantly, this technology, once further developed, will then be licensed to relevant parts of the global refractories market, saving 0.5-5 MT CO2 / yr (conservative estimates).