Abstract
Brick kilns have been the backbone of the construction industry in Bangladesh due to non-availability of stones in enough quantity. Brick kilns in the country use age-old technologies, which are inefficient with high emissions. In addition, the industry uses low quality of coal as fuel, with high ash and sulfur content; there by contributing to the worsening of air quality. This paper discusses the developments in brick making during the past 30 years in search of higher energy efficiency and lower pollution. It is seen that the progress in pollution abatement and energy efficiency improvement have been slow; resulting in considerable health burden for the population and other economic losses for a long time. In recent years, some affordable designs of low polluting and more energy efficient kilns have been introduced by the Department of Environment (DOE) through a number of programs; including World Bank financed Clean Air and Sustainable Environment (CASE) Project. These efforts have led to considerable pollution reduction i.e., by more than 70% for PM (Particulate Matter) and coal consumption reduction by around 30% at individual brick kiln level. Large low emission industrial kilns with imported technology are also being established. However, the rollout of these energy efficient and low emission technologies in substantial numbers is yet to be achieved. Some moves are also afoot to increase the use of non-fired bricks. In order to achieve quick all-round gains, both push as pull factors for the change in current situation need to be mobilized. What is needed is a well-articulated time bound ‘Theory of Change (ToC)’ for green and clean brick industry in the country. Success in this endeavor will substantially reduce the air pollution levels bringing health benefits to local population. Concurrently, it will also reduce the land-use footprint, top soil use, loss of agricultural productivity and Green House Gas (GHG) emission from the brick kilns. In addition, this will also improve employment and working conditions for labor employed in the brick sector. A simplified ToC for a cleaner and greener brick sector for a ten years’ period is outlined in this work.
Highlights
Brick kilns have been the backbone of the construction industry in Bangladesh since stones are not readily available in required quantity
If we look at the time evolution of air pollution in Dhaka, it is seen in figure 1 that PM2.5 pollution level has stabilized and almost remained at the same level during the past five years
This approach has been hampered by the non-availability of low-cost standardized design; but the situation has changed with the availability of the proven IZigzag and MHK and mini Tunnel Kiln (MTK) designs from the Department of Environment (DOE); the MTK design is still to be piloted
Summary
Brick kilns have been the backbone of the construction industry in Bangladesh since stones are not readily available in required quantity. The outcomes from the initiative have resulted in substantial progress in energy efficiency improvement (i.e., around 30-40%) and emission reduction (i.e., >70%) These are improved version of a traditional Zigzag (TZigzag) kiln referred to as IZigzag (Improved Zigzag) Kilns [2]; and a miniature version of Hybrid Hoffman Kiln (MHHK) [3]. Introduction of newer larger capacity technologies, mainly from China has been going on for about 15 years These are large kilns with production capacity around 100,000 bricks per day and even more, based on Hybrid Hoffman kiln (HHK) and Tunnel kiln (TK) designs [4]. There are likely to be some unintended and unexpected outcomes in the implementation of the newer technologies and policies; and these issues need to be addressed through remedial actions during implementation
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