Porous quartz ceramics were produced using river sand from the Yangtze River in China as the raw material by the use of sponge absorption methods. We found that sintering conditions clearly affected the porous structure and other properties. With increasing sintering temperature, the microstructure of the samples changed accordingly and the density increased while the porosity decreased, the micropore edges gradually became smooth. The density of the porous quartz ceramics increased at a holding time of up to 60 min but the porosity decreased. Optimum sintering of the porous quartz ceramics was obtained at 1 100 °C over 60 min as determined by an analysis of the performance–price ratio of the porous quartz ceramics, the density is 1.25 g cm –3, the porosity is 49.5 %, the outside shape is regular, the micropore structure is smooth.