What does the Ghazipur brick cluster use in energy each season?
A typical Ghazipur kiln burns 788 t of coal for 44 lakh bricks, 18 t per lakh, at 1.51 MJ per kg of fired brick: 26 to 37% more than a well run fixed chimney kiln. Across some 380 kilns fired in 2017-18 that came to about 302,600 t of coal.
The cluster
- About 480 brick units; about 380 kilns fired in 2017-18.
- Almost all fixed chimney Bull's trench kilns making handmade solid clay bricks; a few use zigzag firing.
- A typical kiln fires about 25,000 bricks a day, January to June.
- Coal is almost all of the energy.
How far off the mark
A well run fixed chimney kiln needs 1.1 to 1.2 MJ per kg of fired brick, a zigzag kiln 0.9 to 1.1. At 1.51, a Ghazipur kiln reaching 1.2 would burn about a fifth less coal, about 162 t a season.
The season's ledger
- Coal by invoice and weighbridge slip, with the GCV the supplier states.
- Bricks fired, by class, and days fired.
- Diesel for the water pumps.
- Any firewood or crop residue, on its own line.
The rule behind the change
Brick kiln rules notified in 2022 push fixed chimney kilns towards zigzag or other approved firing, so a conversion is often due anyway. The ledger above is the before figure that shows what it saved.
One kiln, one season (estimate)
- 788 t coal for 44 lakh bricks: 179 kg per 1,000
- At India's coal factor: 788 t x 1.76 = 1,387 t CO2, 315 kg per 1,000 bricks
- The profile implies coal near 6,000 kcal per kg; at about 2.26 t CO2 per tonne: 1,781 t, 405 kg per 1,000
- Reaching 1.2 MJ per kg: 162 t less coal, 285 to 366 t CO2 a season
- Cluster: 302,592 t coal, about 532,600 to 683,900 t CO2
Coal, output and energy from TERI's Ghazipur brick cluster profile (2017-18). The higher factor applies the IPCC bituminous default to the implied heat value; your coal's GCV decides.
What Senseible does here
Enter a season's coal and bricks in the calculators for CO2 per 1,000 bricks; Senseible can read the coal invoices themselves into season totals.
Sources: TERI, Cluster profile: Ghazipur brick manufacturing cluster, SAMEEEKSHA, Ghazipur brick manufacturing cluster summary, IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel emission factors)
Last reviewed 2026-10-31.