31/05/13

South Asia on the clean brick road

South Asia should retrofit its brick kilns sector, a workshop heard Copyright: NASA

By: Smriti Mallapaty

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>South Asia on the clean brick road</h1>
<h4>By: Smriti Mallapaty</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><span>[KATHMANDU] South Asia’s brick sector needs to retrofit its existing kilns with cleaner and more efficient technology, a recent (May 9—10) workshop in Kathmandu heard.</span></p>
<div>
<p><span>Organised by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, Mexico’s National Institute of Ecology, and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Nepal, the workshop was attended by entrepreneurs from Latin America, Africa and Asia. </span></p>
</div>
<p><span>South Asia produces over 250 billion bricks annually compared to China’s production of one trillion bricks. But South Asia’s outdated clamp kilns, moveable bull trench kilns and fixed chimney kilns are <a href="http://www.scidev.net/en/climate-change-and-energy/clean-technology-and-copenhagen/">inefficient, polluting and labour-unfriendly</a>. </span></p>
<div style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; background: #ededed; width: 50%; float: left;" class="box">
<div class="inherit_box box">
<h3 style="color: #ffffff; margin: 0px;">SPEED READ</h3>
</div>
<div>
<ul style="list-style: disc outside; margin: 10px 5px 10px 20px;">
<li style="padding: 0 0 5px;"><!--[if gte mso 10]>

<![endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:
    115%;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;
    mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">South Asia needs to modernise brick-making that burns coal and is a major producer of black carbon emissions</span></li>
<li style="padding: 0 0 5px;"><!--[if gte mso 10]>

<![endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:
    115%;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;
    mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Lack of technical knowhow has hampered attempts to bring in cleaner and more efficient kiln designs<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">   </span></span></li>
<li style="padding: 0 0 5px;"><!--[if gte mso 10]>

<![endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:
    115%;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;
    mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Emission controls and better working conditions need to be enforced in the brick industry </span></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<p><span>According to the United Nations Environment Programme, brick-making is the second largest industrial consumer of <a href="http://www.scidev.net/en/climate-change-and-energy/fossil-fuels/">coal</a> in India and accounts for nine per cent of industrial black carbon emissions that have been traced to <a href="http://www.scidev.net/en/climate-change-and-energy/global-warming/">global warming</a>.</span></p>
<p><span>South Asia’s "brick industry is where it was in the 1800s," said Gilbert Habla, managing director of the Melbourne-based Habla Kilns which has signed an agreement with the Nepalese company MinEnergy to build the first Habla ‘zig-zag kiln’ in a developing country.</span></p>
<p><span>Retrofitting with Habla kilns is seen as a first step in South Asia’s <a href="http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/technology-transfer/">climb up the technology ladder</a>. Doing so could result in a 20 per cent drop in coal consumption, three-quarter reduction in black carbon emissions, and profit-doubling, according to a 2013 study by the India-based Greentech Knowledge Solutions.</span></p>
<p><span>Introduction of advanced, highly-mechanised technologies — like the hybrid Hoffman kilns in Bangladesh — have proven messy because of a lack of technical knowhow among entrepreneurs, says Bhishma Pandit, energy efficiency expert at the consultant group INTEGRATION GmbH.</span></p>
<div>
<p><span>"</span><span>Extension services through which you can deliver the technology are almost non-existent in the entire South Asian region, and there are no training facilities," said Sameer Maithel, director at Greentech. "Engaging <a href="http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/governance/">policymakers</a> remains a big issue."</span></p>
</div>
<p><span>Without limits on <a href="http://www.scidev.net/en/climate-change-and-energy/greenhouse-gases/">emissions</a> and proper working conditions, entrepreneurs have little incentive to change, which could mean that plans to retrofit older kilns will fail, says Pandit.</span></p>
<p><span>"If a brick <a href="http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/entrepreneurship/">entrepreneur</a> can make 40,000 bricks with US$ 11,400 as investment and no one is stopping him, he will not invest US$ 114,000 to produce the same number of bricks," Pandit said. </span></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/south-asia-on-the-clean-brick-road/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/south-asia-on-the-clean-brick-road/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

[KATHMANDU] South Asia’s brick sector needs to retrofit its existing kilns with cleaner and more efficient technology, a recent (May 9—10) workshop in Kathmandu heard.

Organised by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, Mexico’s National Institute of Ecology, and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Nepal, the workshop was attended by entrepreneurs from Latin America, Africa and Asia.

South Asia produces over 250 billion bricks annually compared to China’s production of one trillion bricks. But South Asia’s outdated clamp kilns, moveable bull trench kilns and fixed chimney kilns are inefficient, polluting and labour-unfriendly.

SPEED READ

South Asia needs to modernise brick-making that burns coal and is a major producer of black carbon emissions
Lack of technical knowhow has hampered attempts to bring in cleaner and more efficient kiln designs
Emission controls and better working conditions need to be enforced in the brick industry

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, brick-making is the second largest industrial consumer of coal in India and accounts for nine per cent of industrial black carbon emissions that have been traced to global warming.

South Asia’s "brick industry is where it was in the 1800s," said Gilbert Habla, managing director of the Melbourne-based Habla Kilns which has signed an agreement with the Nepalese company MinEnergy to build the first Habla ‘zig-zag kiln’ in a developing country.

Retrofitting with Habla kilns is seen as a first step in South Asia’s climb up the technology ladder. Doing so could result in a 20 per cent drop in coal consumption, three-quarter reduction in black carbon emissions, and profit-doubling, according to a 2013 study by the India-based Greentech Knowledge Solutions.

Introduction of advanced, highly-mechanised technologies — like the hybrid Hoffman kilns in Bangladesh — have proven messy because of a lack of technical knowhow among entrepreneurs, says Bhishma Pandit, energy efficiency expert at the consultant group INTEGRATION GmbH.

"Extension services through which you can deliver the technology are almost non-existent in the entire South Asian region, and there are no training facilities," said Sameer Maithel, director at Greentech. "Engaging policymakers remains a big issue."

Without limits on emissions and proper working conditions, entrepreneurs have little incentive to change, which could mean that plans to retrofit older kilns will fail, says Pandit.

"If a brick entrepreneur can make 40,000 bricks with US$ 11,400 as investment and no one is stopping him, he will not invest US$ 114,000 to produce the same number of bricks," Pandit said.