Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 10

~ Pergamon

PlI: S0360-5442(96)00078-3
Energy Vol.22, No. 1, pp. 33--42, 1997
Copyright© 1996ElsevierScienceLtd
Printed in GreatBritain.All rightsreserved
0360-5442/97 $17.00+ 0.00

ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION OF


BRICKMAKING IN CHINA*

Z H I H O N G ZHANG*
Energy Management and Policy Program, University of Pennsylvania, G-29 Meyerson Hall, 210 South 34th
Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-631l, U.S.A.

(Received 27 February 1996)

Abstract--This paper examines the technologies, energy use and environmental pollution of brick-
making in China. China's brick industry is characterized by its enormous size and large number
of small producers with outdated technologies. More than 90% of the bricks are fired in annular
kilns with coal as the predominant fuel, resulting in substantial SO2, CO2 and other air emissions.
Based on available energy coefficients and emission factors, coal use for brickmaking and associa-
ted SO2 and CO2 emissions are estimated. Government policies and options for energy-efficiency
improvements in brickmaking are also discussed. Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.

INTRODUCTION

Brickmaking is a traditional but important industry in many developing countries. Bricks as a building
material are inexpensive and versatile in use. Establishing and operating brickworks have low require-
ments for capital investments, raw materials and labor skills.
In China, bricks are the most widely used building material. Economic and population growth has
created increasing demands for bricks and other building materials. In 1994, China produced an esti-
mated total of nearly 800 billion bricks, of which 700 billion were produced by small brickworks.
China has more than 84,000 small brickworks in rural areas throughout the country and about 1,200
large and medium-sized ones in the vicinity of urban centers. The small brickworks are operated by
the so-called township and village enterprises (TVEs), whereas the large and medium-sized brickworks
are almost exclusively run by state-owned enterprises (SOEs). At present, TVE plants account for
approximately 90% of the total brick production in China and employ nearly five million people.
Because of the predominance of small-scale production and outdated technologies, the overall pro-
ductivity of brickmaking in China, despite steady improvements in recent years, still lags far behind
the level o f industrial countries. Table 1 shows a comparison of China's brick industry with that of the
U.S. and the U.K.
Since the initiation of economic reform programs in the late 1970s, China's brick industry, mainly

Table 1. Comparison of the brick industries in China, the U.S. and the U.K. (1990).

China

Industry component Small plants Largeand medium-sized plants U.S. U.K.

Production (billion bricks) 417 70 (1991) 8 (roughly) 4 (roughly)


Number of plants 100,510 1,182 ( 1991) 265 157
Employment 4,794,000 not available 15,500 9,000
Production per plant (million bricks) 4 50-60 30 35 (typical)
Production per employee (thousand bricks) 87 not available 516 500
Employees per plant 48 not available 58 70

Sources: Refs. 1-5.

tAn earlier version of this paper was presented at the ACEEE (American Council for an Energy-EfficientEconomy) 1995 Summer
Study on Energy Efficiency in Industry, August 1995.
*Fax: 215-898-9215; e-mail: zzhang@dolphin.upenn.edu
33
34 Z. Zhang

800

600

4OO

200

0
1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994
Fig. 1. Brick production in China (billion bricks). Sources: Refs. 1 and 2, and author's estimate.

the TVE brick sector, has expanded quite rapidly. In 1980, China's total brick output stood at about
150 billion; by 1994, the output reached close to 800 billion or a more than five-fold increase in 14 years
(see Fig. 1). Bricks are produced in every province of the country. Although new building materials are
being introduced in China, bricks continue to be the primary building material especially in rural areas,
where 70% of the population lives.
While brick output has increased steadily, the number of brickworks and persons employed by the
brick industry have decreased somewhat in recent years, indicating an increase in the scale of production
and labor productivity. As shown in Table 2, both the scale of production and labor productivity doubled
between 1986 and 1993, while the average number of employees per enterprise stayed virtually
unchanged.

THE PROCESS OF BRICKMAKING AND MAJOR TECHNOLOGIES IN CHINA

There is a wide spectrum of technologies used for brickmaking worldwide, from basic manual pro-
duction to sophisticated automated operation. Although mechanization of the brick industry has pro-
gressed quite rapidly during the past four decades in industrial countries, brickmaking in China by and
large remains one of the most labor-intensive (and energy-intensive) industries. The tunnel kiln, which
represents the state of the art of brickmaking technologies, reached 70-90% of the market in most
industrial countries by the end of the 1970s 6'7 but occupies only a minuscule share of the Chinese
market. Of the estimated total of 800 billion bricks produced in China in 1994, less than 5% are
manufactured in tunnel kilns. The technology which prevails in China's brick industry is the annular
kiln with open-air drying.
The production process of brickmaking may be divided into four basic stages (clay winning and
hauling is excluded here): clay preparation, molding, drying and firing. Energy use in the process of
brick production occurs mainly at the last two stages of drying and firing green bricks.

Table 2. Changes in scale and productivity of brickmaking in China (TVE plants).

Industry component 1986 1993

Production (billion bricks) 345 641


Number of enterprises (thousand) 100 90
Number of employees (million) 5.0 4.6
Production per enterprise (million bricks) 3.5 7.2
Production per employee (thousand bricks) 69 140
Employees per enterprise 50 51

Source: Ref. 1.
Brickmaking in China 35

Clay preparation
The basic raw material for manufacturing common bricks is clay, which is usually extracted from
the local land. This is particularly true of the TVE brick plants in China. Preparation of the clay is
done according to the properties of the clay and the requirements of the finished product. To ensure
consistency of the raw material, the clay must be treated and screened properly. The preparation process
typically involves crushing the raw material, mixing it with water, blending and screening. Many TVE
brickmakers are equipped with only an agitator and a roller and must use high-quality clay to make
solid bricks. Extruders and high-speed breaking rolls, which are indispensable in modern brick plants,
are still uncommon among TVE brick plants.
Waste fuels or other carbonaceous materials can be added to the clay to enable green bricks to burn
internally during the firing process. According to a Chinese study, 8 about 20% of brickworks with
annular kilns in China mix some kind of carbonaceous wastes in the clay as a body fuel to help with
the firing process, thereby reducing coal use. Such practice not only saves fuel for brick firing but also
reduces industrial solid wastes while conserving land resources by substituting waste materials for clay.
The waste materials utilized in China include fly ash, gangue, coal dust and coal slurry. It was reported
that in 1990 more than 10 million tons of industrial wastes were utilized by brickmaking in China. 8

Brick molding
Several processes for brick molding (pressing and shaping) are available, including extrusion, soft-
mud molding, semi-dry or dry pressing and vibration-compaction. In China, the most widely used
method of molding to produce common bricks is extrusion. In this process, the clay is first blended in
the pug mill and then fed into the extruding machine, which consists of a helix (called an auger)
rotating within a cylindrical barrel. After being forwarded to an auger extractor, the clay is forced
through a die to form a column of clay. The extruded column of clay is then cut into bricks by a
wire-cutter.
In some areas of China, where bricks are produced by farmers for their own use, the pressing and
shaping of clay into bricks is still done manually by throwing a lump of clay into a collapsible wooden
box, slicing away the surplus clay from the top and then removing the wooden box. 9 In general, how-
ever, mechanical brick forming has replaced manual forming in most parts of the country.

Brick drying
Green bricks can be dried naturally (i.e. in open air) or artificially (i.e. by using some kind of dryer).
Brick drying requires a large amount of energy, since the drying process must evaporate the water
contained in the green bricks, raise the temperature of the clay body and heat the air which effects the
drying. There is also heat loss during the drying process. According to one estimate, ~° drying 1,000
freshly extruded bricks (with a 240 x 115 × 71 mm dimension, which contains 700 g of water) requires
2,900-8,200 MJ of energy, which is equivalent to burning 70-196 liters of No. 5 heavy oil.
Natural drying uses solar energy to dry bricks set on racks. Since the natural drying process is
vulnerable to rains, brickmaking with natural drying becomes a seasonal operation, resulting in under-
utilization of production capacity. In northern parts of China, the temperature in winter is too low to
dry bricks in open air, whereas in southern parts of China, there is a relatively long rainy season, which
forces brickworks relying on natural drying to operate for only half of the year.
Artificial drying can be done on hot floors or by using a chamber or tunnel dryer. Hot-floor drying
uses a heated floor with a roof on top which gives protection from the weather and allows the evaporated
water to escape. This method of drying, once common in Europe, is now more or less obsolete.
Chamber drying is a batch process. Bricks are loaded and unloaded by a finger car into the chamber,
where bricks are dried by waste heat recovered from the kiln which may be supplemented by steam
from external sources. Modern chamber dryers have sophisticated control systems to ensure product
quality and heat efficiency.
Tunnel drying is a continuous process. The cars carry bricks through the tunnel dryer where the
drying temperature increases from the entrance to the exit. The tunnel dryer also uses the heated air
recovered from the kiln supplemented with external steam. Heat can also be supplied from external
fuel-burners. Both chamber and tunnel dryers are significantly more efficient than floor drying. The
efficiency rate is 14-25% for hot-floor drying but 20-54% for chamber and tunnel drying. I1 However,
because of their high capital costs, chamber and tunnel dryers have found very limited application in
36 Z, Zhang

China and other developing countries. In fact, less than 2% of the small brickworks and perhaps half
of the large brickworks in China employ artificial drying.

Brick firing and types of kiln


There are three basic types of brick kiln currently used in China: the intermittent "horse-foot" kiln,
the annular kiln (also known as the Hoffman kiln) and the tunnel kiln. Figure 2 provides a breakdown
of brick production by kiln type in 1990 for TVE plants. The share of tunnel kilns among TVE plants
is negligible. The predominant technology is the annular kiln with natural drying, which accounted for
91% of TVE brick production in 1990. Intermittent kilns, which represent the primitive type of brick-
making technologies, made up 7.5% of TVE production in 1990. The types of kiln used by the state-
owned, large-scale brick plants are annular kilns and tunnel kilns, but since they account for only about
10% of total brick output in China, the overall picture of kiln technologies should not vary substantially
from that presented in Fig. 2. Tunnel kilns make up at most 5% of China's brick market.
The traditional design of the Chinese brick kiln is one that is sunk into the ground. The shape of
the kiln is like a horse foot, thus the name horse-foot kiln. The production process of the traditional
kiln is intermittent, with loading and unloading done manually. In terms of technological sophistication,
the horse-foot intermittent kiln has been labeled the primitive type in China. The intermittent kiln has
long been rendered obsolete in industrial countries because of its inherent inefficiencies, except for
firing bricks for specialized uses? In China, much progress has been made to phase out intermittent
kilns. Their share in total brick output declined substantially during the 1980s (down to 7.5% in 1990;
see Fig. 2) and will continue to shrink if government regulations are rigorously enforced.
Apart from the intermittent kiln, the most basic type of kiln used in China is the annular design.
The annular kiln, unlike the intermittent kiln, loads and unloads bricks in the chambers inside the kiln
under high temperatures without interruption. In the annular kiln, the firing moves continually around
the kiln while the bricks stay stationary during the firing. As indicated in Fig. 2, more than 90% of
bricks manufactured in China are fired in annular kilns.
The most advanced kiln technology in brickmaking is the tunnel kiln. In the tunnel kiln, like the
annular kiln, the firing of bricks is a continuous process but, unlike the annular kiln, the firing zone
remains stationary while the bricks move through the kiln. Bricks are loaded and unloaded on cars
outside the kiln at normal temperature. In China, tunnel kilns have been adopted mostly by the state-

Tunnel
Annular (natural drying)
(0.1%)
(artificial drying) /
(1.6%) \ / Intermittent
Annular . \ / / (primitive)
(natural dry1
(90.8%)

Fig. 2. Brick kiln technologies in China (TVE plants, 1990). Source: Ref. 8.

*R is reportedthat 9% Of the kilns in the U.K. are still of the intermittenttype. But these intermittentkilns found in the U.K.
are not what they used to be. In modem intermittentkilns, loading and unloading have been automated, and some have
installed gas-fired systemsthat cost as much as £200,000?
Brickmaking in China 37

owned large plants. The high capital requirements and sophistication in operation render the tunnel kiln
unattractive among TVE brickmakers.*

ENERGY EFFICIENCYOF BRICKMAKING

Brickmaking is an energy-intensive operation. The two production processes in which extensive


energy is required are brick drying and firing. Since roughly 95% of brick drying in Chinese brick
plants (more than 98% among TVE plants) is done in open air, energy is used primarily for brick firing.
The type of fuel used for brick firing in China is almost exclusively coal. This is in contrast to the
practice in most other countries. The dominant fuel used by the U.K. brick industry, for instance, is
gas, which accounts for 80% of the total energy consumption of brickmaking, while electricity (10%),
coal (7%) and oil (3%) make up the rest. 5 The choice of fuel for brickmaking largely depends on the
local availability of energy resources and relative fuel prices. In many developing countries, wood chips
and paddy husks are also used as fuel for firing bricks.
Due to the outmoded kiln technologies and the mammoth size of the brick industry, the amount of
energy used for brickmaking in China is simply staggering. Although no published statistics on energy
consumption by China's brick industry are available, it can be estimated based on the output and energy
use coefficients. According to the Chinese study, 8 the average coal consumption for brickmaking in
China in 1990 was about 105-110 tons of coal equivalent (tce) per million bricks. Various Chinese
reports have documented the trend of energy efficiency improvements for brickmaking over the years.
Figure 3 provides an estimate of coal use per unit of brick produced in China between 1983 and 1994
by small TVE plants and large and medium-sized SOE plants, respectively. Based on these data, the
author places the 1994 average coal consumption per million bricks at approximately 100 tce for TVE
brickworks and 75 tce for SOE brickworks. These are optimistic estimates in view of the uncertainties
associated with the reported energy-efficiency improvements. In 1994, China's total brick output stood
at close to 800 billion,* and the estimated coal consumption amounted to more than 75 million tce.
This means that China burned more than 100 million tons of coal or almost 9% of China's total coal
production in 1994 to manufacture bricks.
Based on estimated coal intensity (Fig. 3) and annual brick production (Fig. 1), the amount of coal

| i^

I,

- 1980 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993


Fig. 3. Coal intensity of brickmaking in China (tce per million bricks). Sources: Refs. 1, 2, 8 and author's
estimate.

+Accordingto the Chinese estimate,s capital investment for the tunnel kiln is about 200 yuan (1990 price) per 1,000 bricks while
that for the annular kiln ranges from 40 to 60 yuan (1990 price) per 1,000 bricks depending on the drying process (natural
or artificial) and the product type (solid or hollow bricks). These investment figures, however, appear considerably lower
than those found for other countries.
*Output by the state-owned enterprises is calculated as a share of the total output, which has been decreasing over the years
from about 20% in the early 1980s to about 10% in the early 1990s.
38 Z. Zhang

use for brick production has been estimated for China for the period of 1983-94. The results are shown
in Fig. 4.
In terms of unit energy use by types of kiln, the intermittent kiln has the highest level of fuel
consumption. To produce one million bricks, as much as 200-250 tce of coal is used by the intermittent
kiln, although no electricity is used. Despite the small share of these kilns, the absolute quantity of
bricks and the amount of energy consumed by these kilns are still quite substantial. In 1994, roughly
eight million tce was used to produce an estimated amount of 40 billion bricks by the intermittent kilns.
Fuel consumption by the annular kiln ranges from 80 to 100 tce per million solid bricks, with small
plants on the high end and large plants on the low end. Electricity use in small plants is 30,000-
40,000 k w h per million solid bricks, s However, if combustible body fuel is mixed with the clay, a
considerable reduction in net energy use can be achieved.
Although the state-of-the-art kiln technology represented by the tunnel kiln has made its way to the
Chinese market, it is limited to the state-owned large and medium-sized plants. Because of its high
level of mechanization, the tunnel kiln tends to require more energy to operate than the annular kiln.
In most countries, modern tunnel kilns are typically fired by oil or gas. Fuel consumption ranges from
about 150 tce per million bricks for top-fired kilns using impulse burners and heavy fuel oil to about
200 tce per million bricks for side-fired kilns using atomizing oil burners, it
In China, bricks made in tunnel kilns are fired by coal. Coal consumption is reported to be about
130 (100-150) tce per million solid bricks plus 35,000-45,000 k w h of electricity. To produce hollow
bricks using tunnel kilns, coal use drops considerably to 80 tce per million bricks, but electricity use
goes up to 45,000-55,000 kWh per million bricks. 8 Comparison of energy efficiency between China
and other countries is not easy to make in general terms because considerable variations exist not only
in kilns and their automation levels but also in brick specifications. The majority of bricks made in
China are low-quality bricks for general structural purposes. Their structural and mechanical strength
in general is not up to the standards of industrial countries. This may partly explain why the overall
unit energy consumption of brickmaking in China appears lower than that in the U.S. or the U.K.
According to the account of a U.S. brickmaker, 4 fuel consumption by his tunnel kiln is around 400
tons of soft coal (which is about 280-400 tce, depending on the heat value) per million bricks. In the
U.K., 5 net energy consumption of gas-fired tunnel kilns averages 240 tce (producing non-fletton bricks),
which appears lower than the U.S. level but higher than the Chinese level. However, without knowing
the detailed specifications of the bricks each country makes, it is not possible to draw a meaningful com-
parison.
It is interesting to note that energy consumption of brickmaking within the U.K. varies considerably,
from 210 to 550 tce (averaging 270 tce) per million non-fletton bricks. Many of these bricks are used
as facing and engineering bricks; some are produced in small batches by intermittent kilns for special
color effects or quality. For fletton and common bricks, which are used for general structural purposes,
net energy consumption is only 50 tce per million bricks. These bricks use high carbon content clay
and are fired in annular kilns. 5

80

60

40

20

i 983 1985 1987 1989 1991 ! 993

Fig. 4. Coal use of brickmaking in China (million tce).


Brickmaking in China 39

Table 3. Emission factors of brickmaking in China.

SO2 Emissions CO 2 Emissions


Technology (t per million bricks) (t of carbon per million bricks)

Intermittent kiln 5.0 113


Annular kiln
Natural drying - - solid bricks 2.7 62
Artificial drying - - solid bricks 2.7 63
Artificial drying - - hollow bricks 1.6 37
Tunnel kiln
Artificial drying - - solid bricks 3.5 80
Artificial drying - - hollow bricks 2.0 48

Source: Ref. 8.

A perhaps more meaningful comparison can be made between Chinese brickmaking and U.K. fletton
brickmaking, since the products seem to bear many similarities. If such comparison is indeed valid,
figures from the above discussion indicate that the overall energy efficiency of China's brick industry
is only half the level of the U.K. (100 tce vs 50 tce per million common bricks). Apart from backward
technologies and lack of economies of scale, production of almost exclusively solid bricks renders the
Chinese brick industry high in energy use. In the U.K., hollow bricks account for 5 0 - 8 0 % of total
production. Producing hollow bricks can reduce fuel use by substantial amounts because there is less
clay to dry and to fire. The Chinese study 8 indicates that making hollow bricks can reduce unit energy
use by as much as over 40%.

ENVIRONMENTALPOLLUTIONFROM BRICKMAKING

As coal is virtually the only type of fuel used in China for brick firing, one of the major environmental
problems of brickmaking is emissions from coal burning. Since no pollution control devices are installed
in brickworks, the amount of emissions is directly associated with coal use. Table 3 presents emission
factors of SO2 and CO2 by kiln type for China in 1990.
Based on these emission factors, annual SO2 and CO2 emissions from China's brick industry are
estimated for the period of 1983-94. Emission factors are adjusted annually according to the estimated
coal intensity. Results of the emissions estimate are shown in Fig. 5. In 1994, China's brick industry
is estimated to have released about 1.9 million tons of SO2 and 43 million tons of CO2 (carbon).
Because of the built-in assumption of energy efficiency improvements, emissions grew less rapidly than
brick output. In fact, emissions from brickmaking in 1994 were about 2.5 times the 1983 level, whereas
brick output increased more than five-fold during this period.
In addition to SO2 and CO2 emissions, which result mainly in regional and global pollution, respect-

• Sulfur d i o x i d e

4,

I jy~j Jyaa Jya~ ,yay ,y'~ ~yy~

Fig. 5. Emissions from brickmaking in China (S02 in lO0,O00tons and C02 in million tons of carbon),
EGY 22-1-D
40 Z. Zhang

ively, emissions of particulate matters pose a direct and more serious threat to the health of the workers
and the local community. Some brick plants in China do not have tall stacks to dilute their pollution
effectively. It has been reported 12 that in some areas in China particulate emissions from brickmaking
have resulted in pollutant concentration levels far exceeding the environmental standards.
Another type of emission from brickmaking is fluorine, which is contained in the clay as fluorides
and released during brick firing. Emission factors of fluorine from brickmaking are given in Table 4.
According to a national survey of major TVE pollution sources conducted in 1990,12 a total of 136,000
tons of fluorine was emitted from TVE brick and ceramics industries, accounting for 87% of total
fluorine emissions by TVE industries. Fluorine, being toxic and chemically reactive, can cause serious
problems for vegetation. Fluorine-contaminated leaves are detrimental and even fatal to silkworms. In
Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces where sericulture prospers, cases of fluorine contamination from brick
plants have been reported. 12
Fluorine emissions from brickmaking have been regulated by the government in some countries such
as the U.S. ~3 Several U.S. brick companies have installed scrubbers to reduce fluorine emissions with
limestone as the scrubbing agent. These systems do not come cheap. The scrubber itself costs up to
$200,000 and the whole system, including the exhaust stack, controls and ductwork, costs twice that
amount. For a country such as China which has not yet installed scrubbers for its coal-fired power
plants, scrubbing fluorine from brick plants is not likely to be considered a priority. However, there
appear to have been some local initiatives in China to develop indigenous devices to reduce fluorine
emissions.14~
Land use by brick plants has probably caused more concerns in China than air pollution from brick-
making. In some areas, clay is won from already scarce farmland. Moreover, since most green bricks
are air-dried, brickworks have occupied large areas of land. For a brick plant with an annual production
of 10-15 million bricks, as much as two hectares of land are needed for brick drying. To produce 700
billion bricks by TVE brickworks, a total of 140,000-210,000 hectares of land would be required for
drying and stacking. Although in general fertile land is not used for this purpose, brick drying, stacking
and clay winning have posed potential threats to land conservation in some rural areas in China.

POLICIES AND OPPORTUNITIESFOR IMPROVINGENERGY EFFICIENCY

Government policies on brickmaking in China since the early 1980s have stressed energy and land
conservation and technological upgrading. These policies can be found in several decrees issued during
the 1980s by the State Council, the State Planning Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture and other
concerned agencies. In 1988, four ministerial-level agencies (the National Building Materials Industry
Administration, the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Land Management Administration and the
Ministry of Urban and Rural Construction and Environmental Protection) jointly issued guidelines to
restrict the use of farmland for brickmaking. 15 The guidelines called upon local governments to follow
the principle of "suiting measures to local conditions, protecting farmland, conserving energy, utilizing
wastes and improving product quality".

Table 4. Emission factors of fluorine from brickmaking.

Average Range
Emission (kg per million bricks) (kg per million bricks)

Rate of release (%y,* 51 40-65


Total fluorine 538 371-705
Gaseous fluorine 286 196-376

+The rate of release refers to the fluoride (in terms of fluorine) released during brick firing as a percentageof total fluoride (in
terms of fluorine) contained in the clay.
*60% of the fluorine released from clay is emitted into the atmospherewith other gases; the rest goes into coal cinder. Gaseous
fluorine is more detrimental (especially hydrogen fluorine) than the fluoride carried in coal cinder.
Source: Ref. 12.

~The paucity of information makes it difficult to assess the extent of the problem and the efforts and progress made in alleviating it.
Brickmaking in China 41

Because of the large population and relatively small proportion of arable land in China, it has been
a long-standing government policy to preserve farmland. As discussed earlier, brickmaking in China
occupies up to 200,000 hectares of land, and it is not in the country's best interest to have brickmaking
compete with agriculture for farmland. Instead of winning clay from farmland, brickmakers have been
encouraged to use other locally available resources such as barren hillocks, river bed sludge and shale
as raw materials for brickmaking. The use of industrial wastes and other carbonaceous materials has
also been promoted by the government. Not only can they reduce clay requirements, adding these
materials to the clay is also an effective way to reduce energy use for external firing. To promote
comprehensive utilization of industrial wastes, China's State Planning Commission stipulates that energy
accounting for brickmaking includes only coal, electricity and fuel oil. The heat value of coal dust,
gangue, coal-washing residues, coal slurry and other low-grade fuels is not included as part of the
enterprise's energy use. t
Another option which has been promoted to save both land and energy is making hollow bricks.
Compared with solid bricks, making hollow bricks reduces both clay and energy use by 20-50%.
Moreover, the drying and firing period can be shortened by 10-15%. Because hollow bricks are lighter
and have better thermal properties than solid bricks, they can also reduce transportation costs for brick-
makers by 20% and heating costs for building residents by 30%. 8 All of these benefits make hollow
bricks a more desirable product than solid bricks. However, hollow bricks have stringent requirements
for clay preparation, pressing and shaping, as well as drying and firing. Most brickworks in China are
not equipped to meet these requirements. In addition, the market for hollow bricks in China has yet to
be developed.
Artificial drying has not been actively promoted in China because it tends to use more energy than
open-air drying while incurring additional capital investments and energy costs. However, artificial
drying can bring many benefits such as significant savings in land use and increase in capacity utiliz-
ation. To improve overall economic efficiencies, artificial drying may be an option worth considering.
Brick plants with artificial dryers can be operated all year round and may therefore be used to increase
output by as much as 50%. The additional costs of the dryer and energy use may well be warranted.
Annular kilns are likely to remain the dominant type of kiln in China in the forseeable future. Efforts
should be made to improve the design and thermal efficiency of existing annular kilns. Measures may
include lining chambers with low thermal mass and higher insulating refractory products and improved
control and design of air flow and damper arrangements. 5 Promotion of tunnel kilns should be done
where technical and financial requirements can be met. At present, most parts of rural China face
scarcity of capital and surplus of labor. Therefore, substituting capital for labor to install tunnel kilns
is simply not feasible. Only after technological levels have sufficiently improved and demands for high-
quality bricks have sufficiently increased will it be possible for tunnel kilns to occupy larger shares of
the Chinese market.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

China's brick industry is characterized by its enormous output, predominantly small-scale production
with outdated technologies and low labor productivity. The kiln technologies used in China involve
primarily the Hoffman-type annular kiln, while most of the products are solid common bricks. Because
of the economic growth and construction boom in China, demands for bricks have been growing rapidly
during the last 15 years.
Energy consumption by China's brick industry is dominated by coal use. Despite the reported
improvements in fuel use over the years, China's brick industry in general still has low fuel efficiencies
and produces low-quality products. Although it is difficult to compare the energy efficiency for brick-
making in China with that in other countries because of variations in product type and quality, there
appear to exist large potentials to reduce energy and land use and to improve the overall economic
efficiencies for brickmaking in China through investments in new and improved technologies to produce
hollow bricks, employ artificial drying, and upgrade and revamp existing annular kilns. The gains in

*While such stipulationmay have some impacton the state-ownedenterprisessince energyuse is oftenfactoredinto the assess-
ment of enterpriseperformance,it is not likelyto affectTVE brick plants becausethey are operatedoutsideof the state plan.
42 Z. Zhang

energy-efficiency improvements will inevitably reduce air pollution associated with coal burning by the
brick industry.
Dissemination of tunnel kilns in China has been slow. In Europe, it took 30-40 years for tunnel
kilns to reach 70-90% of the market. 6'7 In China, diffusion of tunnel kiln technology is not likely to
proceed at such a rapid pace because of the enormous size of the market and the low level of industriaiiz-
ation. The most optimistic projections for brickmaking technologies in China place the share of tunnel
kilns between 20 and 40% by 2010. 8 Given the high capital requirements for installing tunnel kilns of
that magnitude, such projections have little chance to materialize.
Environmental concerns over the brick industry in China include air pollution (SO2, CO2, fluorine
and particulate emissions) and land use by brick plants for brick drying and clay winning. Although
many environmental regulations have been issued in China, enforcement in general is weak. There are
also practical difficulties in regulating one hundred thousand small brick plants throughout China. The
most cost-effective way of reducing air pollution from brickmaking is through fuel-efficiency improve-
ments by upgrading and revamping existing kilns and by producing hollow bricks. Adding carbonaceous
industrial wastes has also proved to be an effective and environmentally beneficial way of reducing
fuel use for brickrnaking.
The future development of China's brick industry will be determined by the market demand for
bricks and other building materials. The rapid growth of brick production in China is not likely to
continue for another 15 or 30 years, although in the near future the size of the market will remain quite
large. With continued economic growth and improvements of people's living standards, the demand
for high-quality structural and facing bricks as well as other building materials will pick up. Although
energy efficiency is not a goal for brickmakers, they will probably opt for energy-efficiency measures
that can increase their profits. Policies and programs designed to increase energy efficiency of brickmak-
ing must be placed in the context of improving the industry's overall technological levels and economic
efficiencies, and the profitability of brickmakers.

Acknowledgements--I would like to thank A. Farrelland S. Malcolmfor theirhelpfulcommentson an earlierdraft of this paper.
Thanks are also due to E. Worrell for providinguseful informationand encouragementfor future research.

REFERENCES

1. China Township and Village Enterprises Yearbook (in Chinese), China Agriculture Press, Beijing (volumes
published from 1989 to 1995).
2. National Building Materials Industry Administration, China, "A Background Report on Energy Consumption
and Air Pollution of the Building Materials Industry in China" (in Chinese), Beijing, 1992.
3. A. J. Darney ed., Manufacturing USA: Industry Analyses, Statistics, and Leading Companies, 4th ed., Gale
Research Inc., Detroit, 1994.
4. Richard, R. W., Am. Ceramic Soc. Bull., 1990, 69, 807.
5. ETSU, "Review of Options for the Brickmaking Industry", Final Report to the World Bank, prepared for
China: ESMAP--Energy Efficiency and Pollution Control in TVE Industry Project, Harwell, Oxfordshire,
U.K., July 1993.
6. Ray, G. F., National Institute of Econ. Rev., 1988, 126, 51.
7. Ray, G. F., Research Policy, 1989, 18, 1.
8. Ministry of Agriculture, China, "Energy Efficiency and Pollution Control in Township and Village Enterprise
(TVE) Industry", prepared for the World Bank/UNDP Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme,
Beijing, 1993.
9. Young, J. and Mcphail, R., Ceramic Rev, 1988, 110, 29.
10. Knizek, I., "Brickmaking Plant: Industry Profile", United Nations, NY, 1978.
11. West, H. W. H., "The Establishment of the Brick and Tile Industry in Developing Countries", United Nations,
NY, 1969.
12. National Environmental Protection Agency, Ministry of Agriculture and State Statistical Bureau, China, "An
Investigation and Evaluation of Pollution Sources of Township and Village Enterprises in China" (in Chinese),
Beijing, 1993.
13. Sheppard, L. M., Am. Ceramic Soc. Bull., 1993, 72, 31.
14. China Township and Village Enterprises Yearbook, 1978-1987 (in Chinese), China Agriculture Press, Beij-
ing, 1989.
15. China Township and Village Enterprises Yearbook, 1989 (in Chinese), China Agriculture Press, Beijing, 1990.

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi