Improved burnt clay brick masonry: lowering upfront embodied carbon, improving thermal comfort and climate resilience of new housing in the Indo-Gangetic Plains
Sameer Maithel
Independent Expert, India
DOI: 10.62744/CATE.45273.1190-452-461
Email: sameermaithel@gmail.com
Abstract:
The urban residential building footprint is expected to increase four-fold during 2020-2050 in the Indo-Gangetic Plains region of India. The business-as-usual construction technology of RCC frame with solid burnt clay brick as the walling material use large quantities of steel, concrete and solid brick and is highly resource and carbon intensive. The region produces 110-140 billion solid burnt clay bricks per year. Brick production is associated with large energy consumption, carbon dioxide emission, air pollution and degradation of agricultural land. The study presents an innovative new burnt clay product - vertically cored interlocking burnt clay block that is being manufactured by a brick manufacturer in the region. The study presents the results of the life cycle analysis (as per EN 15804) and quantifies reductions in carbon and resource consumption for the product and the building element (wall). The analysis is based on the data collected from the industry. The cradle to gate analysis shows a reduction of 31% in the CO2 emissions (kgCO2/m3 of burnt product) and 58% in soil consumption (m3 of soil/m3 of burnt product) for the vertically cored hollow block. A 150 mm thick wall made of vertically cored hollow block results in 55% reduction in the CO2 emissions (kgCO2/m2 of wall) when compared to a 230 mm thick wall of solid brick. In addition, the cement consumption in mortar reduces by 66% and sand consumption by 62% per m2 of wall area. The study further indicates a significant reduction in concrete and steel consumption by extending the analysis to the building level.
Keywords: low-carbon housing, hollow burnt clay block, life cycle analysis, Indo-Gangetic plains, resource- efficient clay brick industry