The production and use of unburned bricks are encouraged in Vietnam

According to Bach Dinh Thien from the Institute for Research and Application of Tropical Building Materials, Vietnam’s tropical climate affects the curing and formation of the initial structure of unburned building materials, as well as the quality of the products.

In an effort to encourage the production and use of unburned bricks, the PM released a decision on an unburned material development program by 2020, under which unburned bricks would account for 30-40 percent of total bricks to be used in the construction industry.

Vietnam plans to use 10-20 million tons of industrial waste (slag) from coal-fired thermopower plants to make unburned building materials. This would save 1,000 hectares of agricultural land each year and replace traditional kilns with modern unburned brick factories.

Unburned brick production projects would help cut the increase in  greenhouse emissions by gradually reducing the use of fossil fuel and soil to make bricks.

The input materials used to make unburned bricks could be sourced from industrial waste, including chips in the stone exploitation industry and fly slag from coal-fired thermal power plants, while cement could be used at low content to create cohesion and intensity of the product.

Scientists estimate that unburnt building materials could help save 40 percent of power needed to heat in winter and cool in summer.

Dr Hoang Vinh Long from the Hanoi Civil Engineering University, said the technology for manufacturing unburned bricks is not too complicated, but manufacturers need to have knowledge about materials, market demand, product characteristics, technology and the solutions to optimize production in Vietnam’s tropical climate.

A report about unburned brick production capacity from the Building Material Department under the Ministry of Construction showed that Vietnam can churn out 6.8 billion bricks, accounting for 26 percent of total building material output. This means that the demand for the green materials is still very high.

However, according to Long, the development of unburned building materials faces problems as users have got used to traditional burned materials. They still have questions about the durability of unburned products in Vietnam’s weather conditions.

Curing concrete with moisture and heat is the solution to this problem. The solution is part of the UNDP-funded project titled ‘Promotion of Non-fired Brick Production and Utilization in Vietnam’.

According to Long, this has brought certain achievements and could be used on a large scale.

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