Impact categories through life cycle assessment of coal-fired brick

Coal is used as the main source of heat energy in brick firing. Since the current utilisation of coal is not ideal in brick kilns, pollution of the environment and gross inefficiency have become its characteristics. The analysis of the contribution of the life cycle stages of building brick to the overall environmental load, using the software SimaPro 5, helps us in prioritising the damaging factors to be curbed. It is seen that the damages caused to human health, energy resources and ecosystem quality are highly from the usage of coal in brick kiln as well as usage of electricity produced from coal power plants. Hence improvement measures are to be first targeted to the coal and electricity use. Efficient use of coal, through advanced technology or improved combustion techniques, could indeed lead to cleaner production, reducing harmful emissions. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.