The porous material of the present invention is produced by heating a dry
powder mixture, containing mainly an organic solid binder and inorganic
particles. The mixture is foamed while the organic binder is melted.
Foaming comes from a foaming agent in the powder mixture. The solid
foamed structure comprising inorganic particles embedded in an organic
binder is then heated to eliminate the organic binder and finally to
sinter the remaining inorganic tri-dimensional network into a rigid
structure having interconnected porosity.