A Manchester-based startup that makes ceramic-like tiles from waste without needing an energy-hungry kiln has teamed up with one of the UK’s biggest tile suppliers to launch a pilot project to scale up the technology.

Dekiln, run by the biomaterials engineer Aled Roberts, is joining forces with Johnson Tiles to set up a trial manufacturing site in Stoke-on-Trent, the historic home of British ceramics.

The tiles developed by Roberts and a team of four look like conventional ceramic tiles, but are made from recycled plaster or gypsum waste and plant-based binders, and are cured (hardened) on a drying rack at 35C.

The technology does away with energy-intensive kilns where tiles are fired at up to 1,000C, saving more than 90% in energy costs while containing more than 95% recycled content.

Roberts founded the company in 2021 after experimenting in his cellar with waste materials such as brick dust and kitchen ingredients such as chickpea juice as a binder.

The announcement of the pilot project comes days after the government announced a £120m support package for the industry after a number of ceramics companies went bust in recent years because of soaring energy costs.

The number of ceramics companies in North Staffordshire has fallen from 137 in 2018 to 123 in 2024. Stoke-on-Trent city council said last week that the local industry had been hit hard by soaring gas prices since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“The UK ceramics sector is facing a hammer blow. The high energy costs are another nail in the coffin for the industry,” Roberts said, pointing to high-profile closures in recent years, including Royal Stafford, Heraldic Pottery and Moorcroft Pottery last year, although Moorcraft was later rescued.

Wedgwood halted production for three months, and Denby Pottery filed for administration in March. Denby’s former marketing director Hayley Baddiley who petitioned the government for help said the support package probably came too late to save Denby.

Another issue is that much of the high-quality clay used in British ceramics came from the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, which is now occupied by Russian troops.

Johnson Tiles, which dates back to 1901, stopped manufacturing in 2024. However, if the pilot is successful it hopes to resume production at its former factory in Stoke using Dekiln’s technology.

Jason Bridges, procurement director at Johnson Tiles, who took part in a management buyout in 2024, said: “Reinventing a former high-carbon intensity factory in the heart of the Potteries with this new low-carbon concept would be a fantastic new chapter in UK ceramics production.”

Roberts said Dekiln’s tiles were better insulators than conventional tiles, with little shrinkage and warpage, and that the technology offered a bigger range of pigments with customisation possible – as there are no high-temperature firing limitations.

However, while they are waterproof they can only be used indoors on walls, and more work needs to be done to make them suitable for outdoors and floors.

Dekiln sources plaster waste from the ceramics industry itself for free, saving those companies waste disposal fees. The business is backed by Green Angel Ventures and Frontier IP, and was awarded £3m by the Royal Academy of Engineering in December.

There is a big push to make ceramics more sustainable. Alusid in Preston, spun out from the University of Central Lancashire in 2015, produces tiles from industrial waste ceramics and glass that are fired at lower temperatures, without energy-intensive spray-drying, and supplies ranges to Topps Tiles.

Roberts, who has used the Dekiln tiles in his own bathroom and kitchen, hopes to work with other tile-makers and to license the technology.

“Not yet, but hopefully in the not too distant future they will be available at a Topps Tiles near you,” he said. “In the long run, there’s no reason why the tiles shouldn’t be as cheap or cheaper than ordinary tiles.”