Eco Blac Bricks

ECO BLAC BRICKS
An innovative step towards greener India
Report Submitted by-
Arun M
CERTIFICATE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TABLE of CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
For centuries the red clay brick has been, quite literally, the building-block of
India. Simple, cheap, and locally available, these bricks are ubiquitous across
the country, and continue to be manufactured by the billions using techniques
largely unchanged since the time of the British Raj.
However, as Indias population booms, the traditional kiln-fired brick is being

produced on a scale never seen before, and the boom is having unexpected
consequences. A number of environmental drawbacks have arisen, such as
topsoil depletion from the harvesting of clay and greenhouse gas emissions
due to the massive energy demands of the kilns. Once taken for granted as the
nations primary building material, many manufacturers and policymakers are
now wondering whether the red clay brick can continue to serve rising
demand.
At the same time, a seemingly unrelated problem is plaguing Indian industry:

the countrys 800 paper mills are burning cheap raw materials to generate
energy, and together they can produce as much as 80,000 tons of waste ash
every day. Much of this ash is unusable and sent to landfills, occupying
valuable farmland at great expense to paper mill owners.
A team at MIT, including Tata Fellow Michael Laracy and Postdoctoral

Associate Thomas Poinot, looked at these problems and spotted an
opportunity to solve both at once: Using industrial ash to develop an
alternative building material to the red clay brick. The result of their
research is the eco-BLAC brick, a low-cost, environmentally-friendly
masonry unit, formulated using industrial ash.
FIRED CLAY BRICK
RAW MATERIALS
Natural clay minerals, including kaolin and shale, make up the main body of
brick. Small amounts of manganese, barium, and other additives are blended
with the clay to produce different shades, and barium carbonate is used to
improve brick's chemical resistance to the elements. Many other additives
have been used in brick, including byproducts from papermaking, ammonium
compounds, wetting agents, flocculants (which cause particles to form loose
clusters) and deflocculate (which disperse such clusters). Some clays require
the addition of sand or grog (pre-ground, pre-fired material such as scrap
brick).
THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS

GRINDING, SIZING, AND COMBINING RAW MATERIALS
First, each of the ingredients is conveyed to a separator that removes oversize

material. A jaw crusher with horizontal steel plates then squeezes the
particles, rendering them still smaller. After the raw materials for each batch
of bricks have been selected, a scalping screen is often used to separate the
different sizes of material. Material of the correct size is sent to storage silos,
and over-sized material goes to a hammer-mill, which pulverizes it with
rapidly moving steel hammers.
The hammer-mill uses another screen to control the maximum size of particle
leaving the mill, and discharge goes to a number of vibrating screens that
separate out material of improper size before it is sent on to the next phase of
production.
EXTRUSION
With extrusion, the most common method of brick forming, pulverized

material and water are fed into one end of a pug mill, which uses knives on a
rotating shaft to cut through and fold together material in a shallow chamber.
The blend is then fed into an extruder at the far end of the mill. The extruder
usually consists of two chambers. The first removes air from the ground clay
with a vacuum, thereby preventing cracking and other defects. The second
chamber, a high-pressure cylinder, compacts the material so the auger can
extrude it through the die. After it is compressed, the plastic material is forced
out of the chamber though a specially shaped die orifice. The cross-section of
the extruded column, called the "pug," is formed into the shape of the die.
Sections of desired length are cut to size with rotating knives or stiff wires.
In molding, soft, wet clay is shaped in a mold, usually a wooden box. The
interior of the box is often coated with sand, which provides the desired
texture and facilitates removing the formed brick from the mold. Water can
also be used to assist release. Pressing, the third type of brick forming,
requires a material with low water content.
The material is placed in a die and then compacted with a steel plunger set at
a desired pressure. More regular in shape and sharper in outline than brick
made with the other two methods, pressed bricks also feature frogs.
CHAMFERING THE BRICK
Chamfering machines were developed to produce a furrow in brick for such

applications as paving. These machines use rollers to indent the brick as it is
being extruded. They are sometimes equipped with wire cutters to do the
chamfering and cutting in one step. Such machines can produce as many as
20,000 units per hour.
COATING
The choice of sand coating, also applied as the brick is extruded, depends on
how soft or hard the extruded material is. A continuous, vibrating feeder is
used to coat soft material, whereas for textured material the coating may have
to be brushed or rolled on. For harder materials a pressure roller or
compressed air is used, and, for extremely hard materials, sand blasting is
required.
DRYING
Before the brick is fired, it must be dried to remove excess moisture. If this
moisture is not removed, the water will burn off too quickly during firing,
causing cracking. Two types of dryers are used. Tunnel dryers use cars to
move the brick through humidity-controlled zones that prevent cracking.
They consist of a long chamber through which the ware is slowly pushed.
External sources of fan-circulated hot air are forced into the dryer to speed
the process.
FIRING
After drying, the brick is loaded onto cars (usually automatically) and fired
to high temperatures in furnaces called kilns. Tunnel kilns have changed in
design from high-load, narrow-width kilns to shorter, lower-set wider kilns
that can fire more brick. This type of design has also led to high-velocity,
long-flame, and low-temperature flame burners, which have improved
temperature uniformity and lowered fuel consumption.
BASIC ADVANTAGES OF CLAY FIRED BRICKS
Aesthetic Appeal
Thermal & Acoustic Insulation
Zero Maintenance Cost
Fire Resistance
Flexible in Application
DISADVANTAGES OF CLAY FIRED BRICKS
To make 60 billion bricks, 185 million tons of top soil is needed.

Ultimately, near about 7500 hectares of very fertile land is deliberately
eroded to meet the demand of clay bricks for construction every year.
This devastating act is slowly killing our environment and we will be
left with no fertile land for agriculture in near future.
Deforestation also occurs in search of soil source for clay brick
manufacturing.
Burnt clay bricks are manufactured using old outdated technology and
no quality testing facilities are available at manufacturing site. Most
bricks which are manufactured using outdated technology are inferior
in quality with low compressive strength. They are not suitable for
multi-storey buildings.
Most brick kilns use coal or wood for the firing purpose. This results in
production of fly ash and a lot of other pollutants.
ECO-BLAC BRICKS: SUSTAINABLE MASONRY FROM
INDUSTRIAL WASTE
For centuries, the clay fired brick has been the most popular building material
in India due to its local availability and low cost. However, negative
environmental and social impacts surrounding its production have raised
concerns about its future use. At the same time, India is experiencing a
growth in industry, and a number of industrial wastes are being generated
which are often disposed of in harmful ways to the population and the
environment.
The aim of this research is to solve both problems by recycling industrial

waste into masonry construction materials. The primary industrial waste
which will be utilized is boiler ash, a byproduct of combustion during
energy production at small- and medium-sized factories. Currently, this
ash has no application due to its variability in physical and chemical
properties, and is landfilled at great expense to both the environment and
factory owners. For this reason we see opportunity in creating a robust design
which can account for these variabilities by using alkali-activation
technology.
These low-cost masonry units can be made with reduced energy demands, a
smaller carbon footprint, and less natural resource consumption than
traditional masonry. This solution is scalable all over India, as there are
factories producing boiler ash throughout the country. Current work is being
done in Muzaffarnagar, U.P., where the team is partnering with the owner of a
paper mill to implement a pilot plant on site.
BOILER ASH
Boiler ash is a generic term applied to many types of ash produced by the
burning of various materials. They are 4 general types of boiler ash
commonly available, each with its own chemical and environmental
characteristics:
Wood Ash from boilers where wood (or bark) is used as a heating
source.
Coal Ash from coal powered electrical generating power plants,

actually two forms, bottom ash and fly ash.
Tire Ash produced from burning shredded tires for fuel in generating
plants.
Incinerator Ash produced from burning MSW (Municipal Solid

Waste, i.e. Garbage) as a waste disposal method
FLY ASH - Arsenic, cadmium, copper, gallium, lead, antimony, selenium,
zinc and other chemicals are commonly found to concentrate in fly ash. Due
to the lime slurry used fly ash tends to be very alkaline (toxic). Also studies
have found that as little as 8% fly ash by weight mixed with soil can increase
the salinity 5-6 times in a short period of time. It has also been found
depending on application rates that fly ash suppresses beneficial microbes in
the soil and as little as 10% can cause a 50% reduction in microbial activity.
COAL ASH is toxic (mutagenic and carcinogenic) and contains many

radioactive elements like uranium and thorium along with arsenic and
mercury. When used as a soil amendment many species of plants suffer
growth problems. Some plants have been found to accumulate toxic amounts
of selenium, manganese, aluminum and boron in their tissues. Small amounts
of ash when leached have been found toxic to many animal species (fish and
others) leading to deformities and death. Toxic material from coal ash has
also been found in drinking water from wells.
THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS

The manufacturing process of Eco-BLAC bricks uses boiler ash and
alkali-activation technology.
This technology uses the boiler ash as an alumino-silicate, combining it

with an alkaline activator solution.
When combined, the ash dissolves, followed by the construction of a

geo-polymer gel, a solid 3D network that gives the bricks strength and
durability.
This solution reuses industrial waste (70% in the current model) rather
than topsoil, and is low-cost and low energy.
THE ALKALI - ACTIVATION PROCESS

Alkaline activation is a chemical process in which a powdery aluminosilicate
such as fly ash is mixed with an alkaline activator to produce a paste capable
of setting and hardening within a reasonably short period of time. The
strength, shrinkage, acid and fire resistance of the resulting material depends
on the nature of aluminosilicate used and the activation process variables.
APPLICATIONS FOR ALKALI ACTIVATED FLY ASH

Concretes made with these materials can be designed to reach
compressive strength values of over 40 MPa after short thermal curing
times.
Concrete made with alkali-activated fly ash performs as well as

traditional concrete and even better in some respect, exhibiting less
shrinkage and stronger bond between the matrix and reinforcing steel.
In addition to its excellent mechanical properties, the activated fly ash

is particularly durable and highly resistant to aggressive acids, the
aggregate-alkali reaction and fire.
This family of materials fixes toxic and hazardous substances very

effectively.
Manufacturing process of Eco-Blac Bricks
PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATIONS OF ECO-BLAC BRICKS

The bricks have been subjected to a battery of tests, including compression,
durability, and water absorption, with promising results. In terms of strength
they are better than the red clay bricks and at a far less cost to the
environment.
ADVANTAGES OF USING ECO-BLAC BRICKS

Making use of fly-ash bricks or other alternative building materials
could slow down the rate of deforestation. Every year, a vast area of
forest is destroyed in search of soil for brick manufacturing.
Modern Fly ash bricks are manufactured using high end pre-
programmed hydraulic machines. Bricks from these machines are
tested for its quality and durability.
Compressive strength of Fly-ash Bricks is high and uniform whereas

compressive strength of clay bricks is low and uneven.
While traditional bricks must be kiln-fired at 1000C, consuming huge

amounts of fuel, the eco-BLAC brick can be cured at ambient
temperatures, massively reducing energy requirements.
This process also produces no emissions, unlike the traditional kiln

technology, which produces carbon dioxide (roughly 76 million tons
CO2/ year), carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, black
carbon, and particulate matter.
In a life-cycle assessment versus the clay-fired brick, the Eco-BLAC brick
performed better in all categories, 24% better in human health, 15% better
in climate change and 33% better in resources. The human health category
focused on the production of respiratory particulate matter, the climate change
category focused on production of CO2 and the resources category focused on
depletion of non-renewable resources. With the product still in development,
researchers hope to reduce the environmental impact even further, using
additional wastes in the mix and reducing chemical use.
REFERENCES
Alkaline activation, procedure for transforming fly ash into new

materials. Part I : Applications. (Angel Palomo and Ana Fernandez-
Jimenez)
tatacenter.mit.edu (Changing how India builds, one brick at a time )
EcoBLAC : Sustainable Masonry from Boiler Ash.
(Hugo Uvegi, Sam Wilson, Piyush Chaunsali, Michael Larcy, Thomas
Poinot, John Ochsendorf, Elsa Olivetti)

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ECO BLAC BRICKS

An innovative step towards greener India

Report Submitted by-

However, as Indias population booms, the traditional kiln-fired brick is being

At the same time, a seemingly unrelated problem is plaguing Indian industry:

A team at MIT, including Tata Fellow Michael Laracy and Postdoctoral

THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS

First, each of the ingredients is conveyed to a separator that removes oversize

With extrusion, the most common method of brick forming, pulverized

CHAMFERING THE BRICK

Chamfering machines were developed to produce a furrow in brick for such

Thermal & Acoustic Insulation

Zero Maintenance Cost

DISADVANTAGES OF CLAY FIRED BRICKS

To make 60 billion bricks, 185 million tons of top soil is needed.

The aim of this research is to solve both problems by recycling industrial

Coal Ash from coal powered electrical generating power plants,

Incinerator Ash produced from burning MSW (Municipal Solid

COAL ASH is toxic (mutagenic and carcinogenic) and contains many

THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS

This technology uses the boiler ash as an alumino-silicate, combining it

When combined, the ash dissolves, followed by the construction of a

THE ALKALI - ACTIVATION PROCESS

APPLICATIONS FOR ALKALI ACTIVATED FLY ASH

Concrete made with alkali-activated fly ash performs as well as

In addition to its excellent mechanical properties, the activated fly ash

This family of materials fixes toxic and hazardous substances very

PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATIONS OF ECO-BLAC BRICKS

ADVANTAGES OF USING ECO-BLAC BRICKS

Compressive strength of Fly-ash Bricks is high and uniform whereas

While traditional bricks must be kiln-fired at 1000C, consuming huge

This process also produces no emissions, unlike the traditional kiln

Alkaline activation, procedure for transforming fly ash into new

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