Science council works on project to help brick industry switch to
resource-efficient method.
Copenhagen
summit may have failed to draw a succinct map for reduction in carbon
emission, but Punjab has started doing its bit, brick by brick.
With an aim to reduce carbon emissions in the
brick industry, United Nations Development Programme’s Global
Environment Facility (UNDP-GEF) is supporting a project on manufacture
of energy-efficient bricks. The Punjab State Council for Science and
Technology (PSCST), which is the local resource centre for north
India, will provide technical guidance to about 5,000 kilns in Punjab
and Haryana.
The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests is
the implementing agency and The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI)
is a partner in the project.
The Indian brick industry is second biggest in
the world after China and produces about 140 million bricks in a year,
consuming 140 billion tonnes of coal along with a huge quantity of
biomass fuel. The total carbon dioxide emission is estimated to be 42
million tonnes. In India, the brick industry comes third after power
and steel in coal consumption, and employs one crore labourers, but
the technology used is age-old, which causes lot of pollution and is
hazardous for workers as most of the processes are conducted manually.
About 12 units of resource efficient bricks will
reduce 1.87 lakh tonnes of carbon emissions over a period of 12 years,
says Pritpal Singh, Senior Engineer, PSCST.
The traditional method uses 18 to 20 tonnes of
coal for producing one lakh bricks, which can go down by 20 per cent
with scientific inputs, he says.
If the industry
switches to energy-efficient bricks, which are perforated or hollow,
it will also consume less top soil. Notably, an estimated 350 million
tonnes of top soil is consumed every year by the industry. Besides,
the new technology will also improve working conditions of labourers,
as about 350 of them work in one unit.
Advent of technology will also address the
problem of labour shortage, which the industry is facing in the wake
of NREGA implementation. “After a few years, besides coals, kilns will
also face clay shortage. The resource-efficient bricks consume less
clay, thereby giving bricks more strength,” he says. As the bricks are
less porous, they do not absorb water and save the building from
seepage during monsoon, Singh says.
Besides providing the technical know-how, the
science council will convince the industry and the architects to
switch over to the green bricks and indirectly give financial help by
asking the banks to provide loans to the industry to upgrade.
The Bureau of
Indian Standards (BIS) and Bureau of Energy Efficiency would be asked
to include technical specifications in their standards.
“Our initial focus will be on Ludhiana and
surrounding areas. We need to sensitise people about the technology
and tell the manufacturers how to market the product. We will organise
tours for representatives of the industry and architects to south
India, where use of such bricks is catching up, and also hold
workshops and seminars,” says Singh.
Advantages of
resource efficient bricks
*Twenty per cent less consumption of top soil
* Twenty per cent less consumption of coal
* Reduced carbon dioxide emissions
* More strength and reduced water absorption
* About 7 per cent reduction in construction
cost
* About 5 per cent saving in power bill due to
insulating property
