A Study Toward Energy Saving in Brick Making: Part 2 Simulation of Processes in Brick Kiln

Abstract

Brick making in developing countries is a major firewood consumer. In the light of firewood shortage, there is a pressing need to develop an energy-efficient brick kiln suitable for rural production. A four-chamber batch-type downdraft kiln possessing heat recovery feature is proposed to substitute the conventional updraft kiln. In order to warrant the success of the proposed kiln, the whole system is studied by computer simulation. The system consists of cooling, firing preheating and drying processes which simultaneously occur in the four chambers. The simulation covers the four processes in series and involves heat transfer, mass transfer and combustion of firewood. It was found that brick produced by this system consumes about 1200kJ/kg brick which is substantially lower than that produced by the conventional updraft kiln while the production rate is increased 2.5 times.