The 2011 Shortlist - Manufacturing and process innovation

PROWAVE VERMICULITE PROCESSING SYSTEM
e2v Technologies, National Centre for Industrial Microwave Processing at Nottingham University, The Vermiculite Association
Used extensively in fireproofing, insulation and in horticulture, vermiculite is a naturally occurring clay consisting of a series of layers of mineral platelets. In its natural state, however, it doesn’t have the properties that make it so useful. These are generated by heating the clay up, which forces it to expand into a high-volume, low-weight form – a process called exfoliation.

This process is highly energyintensive, usually carried out in gas- or oil-fired furnaces that consume around 1MW/hr of energy per tonne of vermiculite. But a team from Essex-based e2v Technologies has exploited a quirk of the material to come up with a new, lower-energy process.