Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln Presenting a
Low Carbon Pathway for Small Enterprises 

A slam Khan, an entrepreneur, runs an eco-kiln enterprise ‘Aslam Khan Brick Kiln’ in Datiya, Madhya Pradesh, since 1998. The technology is the first-ever developed commercial eco-kiln initiated by the Development Alternatives Group in India and is still successfully running. Initially, the eco-kiln used coal as an external fuel for firing purposes. Coal is a non-renewable source of energy and is exhausted rapidly, which causes problematic situations for industries. Also, biowaste, which is being burnt in open by farmers, commonly known as crop burning, poses hazardous threats to the environment and human beings’ health. Keeping all these issues in mind, Development Alternatives developed and demonstrated an eco-fuel technology known as briquettes, which is a composition of agricultural residue, agricultural waste, and biowaste, in Datiya.

For the last six months, the entrepreneur has been using briquettes as a replacement for coal, which is extensively being used in the production of red bricks as an external fuel.

Currently, the price of coal is INR 16/kg, whereas briquettes cost INR 7.5/kg. As per the comparison test results between the two, 1 kg of coal can be replaced with 1.5 kg of briquettes to perform the same function in the eco-kiln. Briquettes leads the owner to save INR 5/kg. Also, the quality of the fired bricks is high when briquettes are used as an external fuel for their production.

The owner is satisfied with briquettes and continues to use them in his eco-kiln actively. Development Alternatives has provided suitable technical support to the owner in understanding how to use briquettes in a sufficient quantity to produce good quality red bricks and other related issues. Furthermore, the owner is also at ease with the eco-kiln technology and will continue to use it more in the future.