Fly ash bricks- an untapped opportunity?
Fly ash bricks can be an enormous opportunity for SMEs. Ironically however, even as transition from clay bricks to fly ash bricks has become imperative, given the environmental damages and top soil degradation caused by the manufacturing of clay bricks and also in view of the regulatory measures taken by the Central and state governments, not much progress has been made on ground zero. Read On...
There are some moves now to offer free training- albeit by Fly Ash Bricks & Blocks Manufacturers’ Federation (FABMAFED), the national apex body of fly ash brick manufacturers in the country -- to interested clay bricks manufacturers in West Bengal, in particular and across the country to enable and ensure smooth and seamless transition to more environment-friendly and energy efficient mechanisms for manufacturing of bricks. There are more than 40,000 fly ash brick making units across the country. While the market size of clay bricks is 300 billion annually, fly ash bricks stand at a moderate 48 billion, according to the Institute for Solid Waste Research & Ecological Balance (INSWAREB).
Interestingly, the Indian brick industry is the second largest industrial consumer of coal after steel, pegging its annual requirement at nearly 35 million tonnes. Combustion of coal and other bio-mass fuels in brick kilns results in the emissions of suspended particulate matter (SPM), including black carbon (BC), sulphur dioxide (SO2), oxides of nitrogen (NO2) and carbon monoxide (CO). Burnt clay brick production activity in India also emits approximately 90 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), a harmful greenhouse gas that is throwing the earth’s balance out of gear.
The conversion from clay bricks to fly ash bricks may entail an investment of upto Rs 4 crore depending on the size and scale. However, given the current average size of the brick units, an average investment of Rs 15-20 lakh would suffice. The self help group may get into fly ash brick making at a much lower cost, industry analysts said.
Surajit Basu, president, FABMAFED, said, “Brick Kilns should become ‘smart and efficient’. And in order to facilitate smooth transition of existing clay brick manufacturers to manufacturing of bricks from pulverized fuel ash, FABMAFED has tied up with reputed technical institutes and organizations for offering technology and training to the interested clay brick manufacturers free-of-cost. FABMAFED would actually utilise and monetise the fly ash sale proceeds available with thermal power stations in the state. The FABMAFED move also aims at promoting entrepreneurship development in the state in this field.”
“Our endeavour will not only generate and provide employment to local population round the year (as fly ash brick activity is not seasonal like clay brick manufacturing) but also turn an activity, otherwise associated with social distress and environmental degradation, into an eco-friendly business with the ability to bring sustainable development,” added Basu.
Fly ash bricks, experts feel, can come in handy to developers to go green, adhere to eco-friendly and energy efficient standards.
Interestingly, a World Bank project is helping to promote the new method by enabling entrepreneurs to earn carbon credit revenues. So far, the project has enabled 108 fly ash brick plants to earn about $3.2 million. Climate-friendly fly ash brick technology produces bricks without using coal. It has the potential to eliminate carbon emissions from India’s large brick-making industry, which burns huge amounts of coal and emits millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. Unlike clay bricks, which use valuable topsoil as raw material, the new method uses fly ash.
The World Bank report says that manufacturing bricks, blocks and tiles from fly ash will conserve precious top soil, prevent dumping and recycle fly ash being generated by thermal power plants. It would also eliminate carbon emissions from India’s brick making industry.
Fly ash brick manufacturers like Basu, Ashish Nangalia and others say that environment is not the only advantage that fly ash bricks enjoy over its clay counterpart. It also costs less. In Kolkata, for instance, on an average, a quality clay brick costs about Rs 8 while a good quality fly ash brick is priced at Rs 6.5.
In some states, fly ash bricks are even cheaper, available at nearly Rs 5. The estimated cost for constructing per cubic metre of wall using fly ash bricks is less than that of using clay. The cost of per cubic metre construction with clay bricks is Rs 3,955 as compared to Rs 3,290 in the case of using fly-ash bricks.