Adopted in Savar kiln on trial basis; can cut air pollution by 60-70pc, save 4 lakh trees a year
A brick company using clean technology has started its debut production in the country at Nayarhat, Savar.
Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln, the technology, can reduce air pollution up to 60 to 70 percent and save 4 lakh trees every year, said Soumen Maity, an expert involved with the pilot project. It would also reduce use of coal by 30 to 40 percent, he said.
Conforce Ltd has set up the kiln with financial assistance from the World Bank and technical support from two India based NGOs — Development Alternatives and Action for Rural Advancement. Practical Action, another NGO, is implementing the project.
Conforce Ltd got the fund through an open bidding, said WB officials.
Managing Director of Conforce Ltd Nazmul Hossain said, “We got interested in the technology since it reduces energy consumption, which ultimately cuts production cost.
“We have already started marketing our bricks and will go full-fledged within a few days,” he added.
The new kiln has two shafts, each capable of producing 9,000 to 10,000 bricks round the clock under close supervision.
Soumen Maity, team leader of Training and Technology of Development Alternatives, said the quality of the bricks from this kiln is as good as regular bricks.”
He said it costs around Tk 30 lakh to install a vertical shaft kiln while a traditional one needs more than Tk 1 crore excluding land.
Soumen is optimistic that smaller entrepreneurs would be interested in adopting the technology, as a vertical brick kiln needs smaller space.
Officials of the project said there are about 4,000 registered brick kilns in Bangladesh, which burn around 2.2 million metric tonnes of coal every year. If half of the kilns are turned into vertical shaft ones, we can save 4.8 lakh metric tonnes of coal and reduce carbon emission by 1.5 million metric tonnes.
Maria Sarraf, senior environment economist of WB’s South Asia region, said the WB is financing the project considering economic and environmental aspects.
She said, “The pilot project is showing good signs. The WB will finance 20 to 25 more clean technology projects in the next five years.”
Devised in China vertical shaft brick kiln technology has now been adopted in India, Nepal, Vietnam, Pakistan, Afghanistan and South Africa.
