Hydrogen Fired Kilns
Lucideon houses two cutting-edge facilities for kiln research and development incorporating hydrogen fuel, where innovation meets sustainability in ceramic manufacturing. Since April 2022, we've been leading the charge in exploring the potential of hydrogen as a clean fuel for kilns. Our state-of-the-art kilns, operate at temperatures up to 1650°C (3000°F) in both oxidising and reducing atmospheres, offering a unique blend of versatility and precision.
Hydrogen firing: opportunities and challenges
Hydrogen firing ceramics capitalises on one of the key advantages of using hydrogen as a fuel: its clean combustion produces only water vapour as a by-product. However, this can introduce challenges in ceramic manufacturing as the presence of water vapour can affect the properties of finished products. At Lucideon, we're experts in identifying and mitigating these challenges, ensuring that manufacturers achieve consistent quality and performance in their products when using hydrogen or hydrogen blends as a fuel.
What sets us apart is our ability to customise the firing processes for traditional to advanced ceramics, using blends of hydrogen and natural gas ranging from 1% to 100% hydrogen and making use of our expertise in harnessing the power of hydrogen as a clean, sustainable fuel for both intermittent / batch kilns and continuous roller kilns.
Lucideon's capabilities
- Firing at different ratios of hydrogen and natural gas, scaling up to 100% hydrogen
- Measuring kiln emissions with our flue gas analyser (e.g. NOx, SOx, H2O vapours)
- Checking temperatures that are attainable with different gas blends
- Adapting and advising on firing schedules depending on the product and gas blend used
- Checking for visual, chemical, and mechanical changes to products
- Testing finished products to relevant standards to check for compliance
Our continuous kiln takes customisation a step further with multiple burner ports, enabling us to tune the kiln to accommodate different fuel blends at different stages of production. As an example, we can use hydrogen in the ramp up stages before switching to a mixture or pure natural gas in the sintering stages of a firing. This unparalleled capability ensures maximum efficiency and performance while minimising environmental impact.
The value of experience
The process of commissioning our two kilns to run on different blends of hydrogen involved a lot of new engineering. Through this, we have learned a lot about how to retrofit or set up new kilns to use hydrogen as a fuel, allowing us to apply this knowledge and expertise to your kilns and accelerating your commissioning processes.
Whether you're a ceramic product manufacturer seeking to optimise your processes or a kiln parts manufacturer looking to explore the effects of hydrogen combustion, Lucideon offers the expertise and facilities you need to stay ahead of the competition. Join us in shaping the future of ceramics manufacturing through clean, efficient, and sustainable solutions.
Lucideon and the HyDeploy programme - the hydrogen route to Net Zero
This video below shows the progress made by Lucideon and the HyDeploy programme in the assessment of firing materials such as advanced ceramics, bricks, tiles and tableware in a 20% hydrogen / 80% natural gas mix. Presenters from Progressive Energy, Cadent and Lucideon explain this ground-breaking programme and show the latest results ahead of the project completion, which was successfully concluded in 2022.
To find out more about the wider HyDeploy project visit hydeploy.co.uk