Malur brick kilns

Introduction

Malur is an important brick manufacturing cluster located near Bengaluru, and the largest hub of downdraft kilns in the country. Besides brick making, Malur is also famous for its numerous Eucalyptus plantations. The products of the cluster are mainly supplied to Bengaluru city. There are two types of brick firing technologies being used in the Malur cluster: the downdraft kiln, an intermittent and relatively inefficient firing technology used by about 600 small capacity units (MSMEs); and the Hoffman kiln, a continuous and relatively efficient method of brick firing used by large units. All the down-draft kilns uses manual green brick molding processes and produce solid bricks. The Hoffman kilns produce resource-efficient bricks (REBs) in addition to solid bricks. The average production capacity of a typical down-draft kiln is 35,000 bricks per batch. The average duration of each batch is 8 days, which includes 36-40 hours of firing followed by 4-6 days of cooling. The brick kilns are operated throughout the year.

Products manufactured

Clay fired solid bricks; resource-efficient bricks

Energy Consumption

Medium

Number of Brick Kilns

620

Main fuels

Eucalyptus twigs and firewood

Annual Production

N.A

Total energy consumption (toe)

70,606

Leading industry association(s)

• Malur Brick Kiln Association

Cluster Profile

https://sameeeksha.org/pdf/clusterprofile/Malur-brick-kilns-Karnataka.pdf

Other Resources

• MSME Development Institute (MSME-DI) Bengaluru https://cluster.dcmsme.gov.in/CFCRPT/CFC_DiDirectory.aspx

Source Data pertains to 2016–17, collected primarily under the TERI–SDC EESE project