In the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,¹ the refractory industry continues to make great strides toward adopting sustainable practices.

As most refractories are extracted from natural materials, developing environmentally friendly mining practices remains vital to the industry. Additionally, the high temperatures required during refractory manufacturing use significant energy from fossil fuels, which can contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Common refractory materials also contain carbonate minerals that release CO₂ when heated during processing, which makes it challenging to immediately reduce greenhouse gases in this sector.²