Main societal implications of Slight Granulation project refer to the (positive) environmental impact that the solution may bring to ceramic industries, allowing for strong water and energy saving.
Actually, water is used in virtually all ceramic processes and for different purposes: basically, as a raw material for the body and its preparation, as a raw material for glazes, as a washing fluid and as a cooling medium. As regards energy consumption, the primary energy use in ceramic manufacturing is for kiln firing and, in many processes, drying of intermediates or shaped ware is also energy intensive. Spry dry units are a further part of the plant with high energy consumption, since is the phase of the process where the slip needs to be dried from 40% humidity down to 7%. Plants and machineries used for the comminution and mixing of raw materials, and the forming of ware, require electrical energy.
The SLIGHT GRANULATION innovative process aims at completely replacing the current traditional granulation process in the ceramic and non ceramic industry. According to the raw material available, the new system will eliminate the existing performance gap still present in those circumstances in which the old traditional atomization system provides substantial advantages. There will be, as a consequence, obvious savings in terms of energy consumption and environmental impact. In a nutshell, thanks to the innovation process, the ceramic tiles producers will be able to combine ease of handling of granular particles in the stages of flat forming in the ceramic process, typical of the atomizing system, with the increasing necessity of energy saving.
M&S received excellent feedback from the market: potential customers are aware that strong interventions are needed to reduce the use of water in ceramic process, that implies of course, reduction in energy use and this costs. Companies identified in better plants and in continuous monitoring of environmental indicators the main solutions to solve the problems they are currently facing. In this view, Slight Granulation perfectly fits with market requirements identified so far.
