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Massachusetts has created eco-bricks
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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With over 100,000 kilns producing approximately 2 billion bricks every year, India's brick industry is a major source of environmental pollution.
Heating one furnace requires a large amount of coal and diesel fuel, extremely high temperatures make working conditions difficult, and in addition, a huge amount of emissions are released into the atmosphere, which affects the environmental situation of the country.
In Massachusetts, a group of students from one of the universities proposed an alternative option to brick manufacturers - the creation of eco-friendly bricks.
Eco BLAC bricks do not need to be fired and are produced using waste ash from waste boilers.
In the production of ordinary clay bricks, a firing method is used at a temperature of 1000ºС.
Graduate student Michael Laracy, one of the project's developers, noted that kilns require enormous energy inputs, and in addition, the topsoil used to make such bricks depletes land resources.
To produce eco-friendly bricks, students took waste from paper mills (ash), mixed it with sodium hydroxide, lime, and clay. High temperatures are not required to produce new bricks, the entire process occurs using the "alkaline activation" method, due to which the eco-brick acquires high strength.
The process for creating eco-bricks was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The production of Eco BLAC bricks is part of a larger project that aims to develop building materials that will be produced with minimal emissions and will be used to build low-cost housing in slum areas.
According to preliminary estimates, the population of India will reach 1.5 million people in 30-35 years, which will lead to an increase in demand for housing and the need for inexpensive building materials.
The University of Massachusetts project aims to solve two problems: recycling industrial waste and producing inexpensive construction materials.
Michael Larency, a civil engineer by profession, noted that eco-brick is currently being tested in one of the towns near the capital of India. Such a product is cheaper than the usual one, but it must also prove its strength and durability.
So far, so good, and the team is hoping the brick factory will be located close to the paper mill to reduce ash transportation costs.
If the eco-brick line is put into mass production, it will have an impact on the environmental situation in India, and in addition, industrial safety will be improved, since there will be no depletion of land resources, and farmers will not be deprived of soil for growing their products.
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