Burnout of organic binder and sintering behaviour of yttria doped zirconia electrolyte green tapes were investigated by thermogravimetry and dilatometry. The burnout which precedes the actual sintering, as well as the sintering itself were described by a mathematical model based on formal kinetics. Thus, the measured data were reduced to a set of a few parameters which can be easily used to simulate the kinetic behaviour for an arbitrary temperature profile, so that good accordance between prediction and respective measurement was accomplished. Using rate controlled binder burnout and rate controlled sintering, optimisation of the temperature profile was achieved with respect to time and energy saving. These results were confirmed by SEM analysis of the microstructure and determination of the electrical conductivity. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.