Patent ID: 7723250

Claim:
A method of producing a ceramic porous body having partition walls, the ceramic porous body comprising cordierite, the method comprising: adding a porous silica powder having a bulk density of 0.2 to 1 g/cm 3 or a porous silica-containing compound powder having a bulk density of 0.2 to 1 g/cm 3 to a forming raw material to prepare a ceramic clay, in an amount of 5 to 40 vol. % in the total amount of the forming raw material so as to make the porous silica powder or the porous silica-containing compound powder work sufficiently as a pore-forming material and as at least a part of an Si-source for forming a cordierite in the ceramic clay, forming the resulting ceramic clay into a specific shape, and firing the formed ceramic clay so as to convert a material of the ceramic clay to cordierite wherein the partition walls have pores and porosity of at least 50%, said pores being formed mainly by virtue of the porous silica powder or the porous silica-containing compound powder wherein the porous silica powder is a silica gel and the porous silica-containing compound powder is a magnesium silicate.