How much coal does a Lucknow brick kiln burn per lakh bricks, and what is the cluster's CO2?

About 17 t. TERI's Lucknow profile puts a typical Bull's trench kiln at 27,000 bricks a day for 180 days: 48.6 lakh bricks on 826 t of coal, roughly 1,450 t CO2 a season. The cluster's 230 or so kilns burn about 186,676 t of coal a year.

The Lucknow kiln

• About 230 kilns, almost all fixed chimney Bull's trench kilns; about 10 already fire zigzag.
• Firing runs about six months, January to June, at 1,000 to 1,100 C; chimney gas leaves at 80 to 120 C.
• Hand moulded solid bricks of 9 x 4 x 3 inch, about 3.0 kg each, sun dried before firing.
• Class 1 is about 45% of output; Tamda 20%, Class 2, Class 3 and Tukda 10% each, Kali Peti 5%. Every broken or underfired brick burnt the same coal.
• Coal is almost the whole energy bill. Diesel only runs the pump set for moulding water.

Measure MJ per kg, not only tonnes per lakh

Tonnes per lakh moves with brick weight and coal quality. TERI measured Lucknow kilns at 1.38 MJ per kg of fired brick, against 1.1 to 1.2 MJ for a well run kiln. Closing that gap is about one sixth of your coal.

Two 10% savings TERI costed

• Kiln practice, about 10%: crush coal to about 10 mm, feed small amounts every 20 minutes instead of every 45 to 60, use 750 to 1,000 g spoons, one fireman feeding, three or more lines at a time; seal wickets with two-brick walls plastered both sides, close side flues and keep about 7 inches of ash on top of the setting.
• Zigzag firing, about 10%: a longer fire path and turbulent air through the stacking.
• Each is worth about 18,678 t of coal a year across the cluster, by TERI's count.

What to keep for a lender or buyer

1. Coal invoices and weighbridge slips for the season.
2. Bricks fired and sold, by class.
3. Green bricks lost to rain: TERI reports about 20% in an open yard.
4. Any wood or sawdust, on its own line as biogenic.

One Lucknow kiln, one season (estimate)

• Coal: 826 t x 1.76 t CO2 = 1,454 t CO2
• Per lakh bricks: 1,454 / 48.6 = 29.9 t, or about 300 kg per 1,000 bricks
• Better feeding at 10%: 82.6 t coal = 145 t CO2 saved
• From 1.38 down to 1.15 MJ per kg: about 138 t coal, 242 t CO2 saved
• Cluster: 186,676 t x 1.76 = about 328,550 t CO2

Coal and output from TERI's Lucknow profile. TERI's own table shows 196,620 t CO2 for the cluster, which implies a lower factor than India's BUR-2 coal factor of 1.76 used here. If you have a lab test of your coal, use it.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads coal invoices and weighbridge slips into season totals with CO2 at India's coal factor, so your tonnes per lakh comes from your own bills, not the cluster average.

• Your carbon number for buyers and banks
• Varanasi kilns: coal per kiln
• Brick kiln CO2 per 1,000 bricks
• Zigzag conversion and credits

Sources: TERI, Cluster profile: Lucknow brick kilns (SAMEEEKSHA), IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy

Last reviewed 2026-10-31.