Methods for the heat treatment of a material flow and the cleaning of resulting exhaust gases are disclosed. The material flow may be preheated in a preheating zone, burned in a sintering zone, and cooled in a cooling zone. Exhaust gases of the sintering zone may flow through a preheater and be used for preheating the material flow. The exhaust gases leaving the preheater may be cooled at least partially in a comminuting device in interconnected operation or at least partially in a cooling device in direct operation. Exhaust gases may then be at least partly dedusted in a dust filter. A temperature of the dedusted exhaust gas may then be raised before the exhaust gas is cleaned of pollutants in at least one catalyst. A temperature at which the exhaust gases flow through the catalyst in direct operation may be higher, at least in phases, than a temperature at which the exhaust gases flow through the catalyst in interconnected operation.