Researchers develop bio-bricks from agri waste products

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad and KIIT School of Architecture, Bhubaneshwar, have developed bio-bricks from agricultural waste products.

This serves the dual purpose of waste management, and development of eco-friendly building materials, a IITH release said on Wednesday.

The research was undertaken by Priyabrata Rautray, PhD scholar, Design Department, IIT Hyderabad and Avik Roy, Assistant Professor, KIIT School of Architecture, Bhubaneshwar.

The research work, guided by Deepak John Mathew, Head, Design Department, IIT Hyderabad and Boris Eisenbart from Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, was presented at the International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED-2019) at TU Delft, Netherlands, it said.

The bio-brick received a Special Recognition Trophyfor sustainable housing at Rural Innovators Start-Up Conclave 2019 organised recently by the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR), Hyderabad.

According to Rautray, 22 per cent of Indias total annual CO2 emissions is by the construction sector.

"Clay bricks, for example, not only use up fertile topsoil, but their manufacturing process also emits significant amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the scholar said.

Rautray said the Centre set up the Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC) in the 1990s to develop eco-friendly and energy-efficient building materials, providing impetus into repurposing agricultural and industrial waste items into construction materials.

According to the release, repurposing of agricultural wastes is particularly important in India as more than 500 million tons of agricultural waste are produced in the country every year.

While some of this is reused as fodder, 84 to 141 million-tons are burnt, resulting in severe air pollution.

The process of making bio-bricks starts with careful selection of the dry agro-waste like paddy straws, wheat straws, sugarcane bagasse and cotton plant, it said.

Although these bio-bricks are not as strong as burnt clay bricks and cannot be used directly to build load-bearing structures, they can be used in low-cost housing with combination of wooden or metal structural framework.