Calcined Bone Ash

The raw material for bone china is about 50% bone ash derived from animal bones. These bones undergo multiple processing stages during which all meat is removed and the bone is completely cleaned. Once cleaned, the bone is heated to about 1000 °C (1832 °F) so that all additional organic material is removed from the bone and the bone becomessterilized. Lastly, the newly sterilized bone is ground with water into fine particles which can be used as a raw material for bone china. Bone ash plays an important role in the creation of bone china, as the phosphate of the bone generates beta tricalcium phosphate, and other compounds from the bone create a calcium crystal called anorthite. Synthetic alternatives dicalcium phosphate and tricalcium phosphate are used as substitutes for bone ash. Most bone china are produced with synthetic alternatives rather than bone ash.