KERABEN GRUPO SA

Their core work

Keraben is a major Spanish ceramic tile manufacturer based in Nules (Castellón province), the heart of Spain's ceramic industry. They bring deep industrial expertise in ceramic production processes — kiln design, firing technologies, and materials — to EU research projects focused on making energy-intensive manufacturing cleaner and more efficient. Their R&D involvement spans from optimizing traditional ceramic kilns to pioneering microwave-based firing systems and developing lightweight, multifunctional ceramic materials for construction. They serve as a real-world industrial testbed where lab-scale innovations get validated at production scale.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Keraben's early H2020 work (2015–2017) focused on optimizing conventional ceramic manufacturing — improving kiln performance through better refractory materials, heat pipe integration, and simulation. From 2018 onward, their focus shifted decisively toward disruptive process technologies (microwave firing for multiple heavy industries) and circular economy applications (material recovery, circular building design, digitalization of demolition workflows). The trajectory shows a company moving from incremental efficiency gains in its own sector to cross-industry decarbonization and circularity — a strategic repositioning from ceramic specialist to clean industrial manufacturing partner.

Keraben is evolving from a ceramic-only manufacturer toward a broader role in sustainable construction materials and cross-sector industrial energy transformation, making them increasingly relevant for green manufacturing and circular economy consortia.

How they like to work

Keraben operates predominantly as a participant (4 of 5 projects) but has taken on coordination responsibility once (DESTINY, their largest-funded project at EUR 504K), suggesting growing confidence in leading EU research. With 112 unique consortium partners across 17 countries, they work in large, diverse consortia — typical for Innovation Actions where industrial demonstration is central. Their role pattern indicates they are valued as an industrial end-user who provides real factory environments for validation rather than as a pure research contributor.

Keraben has built a broad European network of 112 unique partners across 17 countries through five projects, indicating strong connections across both research and industry. Their network spans the construction, energy, and materials sectors, with particularly strong links to Mediterranean and Western European partners in resource-intensive industries.

What sets them apart

Keraben is one of very few large ceramic manufacturers actively engaged in EU-funded process innovation — most ceramic companies this size focus purely on product development. Their dual expertise in both traditional ceramic production and emerging technologies like microwave firing gives them a rare ability to bridge lab-scale research with industrial reality. For consortium builders, they offer something hard to find: a production-scale testbed in one of Europe's most energy-intensive manufacturing sectors, combined with genuine R&D ambition.

Highlights from their portfolio

• DESTINY
  Their only coordinated project and largest funding (EUR 504K), developing microwave firing technology applicable across ceramic, cement, and steel industries — a significant cross-sector ambition.
• ICEBERG
  Represents their newest strategic direction into circular construction, combining digital tools (BIM, RFID tracing) with material recovery — a departure from their traditional manufacturing focus.
• DREAM
  Directly targeted their core business of ceramic kiln design, producing practical improvements in energy and resource efficiency for tile manufacturing.