Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln in Malawi, Africa
The ecotechnologies of clay brick production developed by the EcoSur Networka had an impact world wide. In Malawi, southeast Africa, a young entrepreneur built a Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln (VSBK) based in the kilns built in Ecuador, South America.
As in many other parts of the world, in Malawi burnt clay bricks are made by hand, mixing earth (that most of the times is also used to grow crops) with water and a binder like straw, cow or horse manure, sawdust, rice or coffee husk. Afterwards, the bricks are burned in open kilns, in a very inefficients and pollutant way.
In Malawi, Mr. Mwayanjana Bolokonya (Mwaya among friends), a young entrepreneur, built a Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln based in the kilns built in Ecuador by the EcoSur Network. After Mwaya meet the VSBK in South Africa, he got convinced of its quality and after some consultation with EcoSur Ecuador, he decided to built a VSBK in Lilongwe city.
Meanwhile, in 2014 Mwaya purchased a brick extruder and a mud mixer. After some tests, the first bricks were burnt in april 2014 and the construction started. With the load/unload system ready, the HSBK was a succes. Today, Mwaya's VSBK can produce up to 180 standard sized bricks per hour.
The kiln was built totally with Mwaya's own resources and from his own company: EcoBuild Malawi. Everything started in june 2011 while watching a home improvement TV show: Mwaya realized that the finishing quality of the houses in Malawi were way below international standards, mostly because the poor quality of the building materials available, and specially fo the basic construction unit: the clay brick.
“With climate change issues fresh on Malawian minds after recent flash floods, I see more sustainable brick production technologies being introduced in the future, that is technologies like our VSBK with lower fuel consumption and less emissions” states Mwaya. His final goal is to use fuels other than firewood like biomass briquettes.
Loading/unloading hidraulic system in the Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln in Malawi, Africa
As a good entrepreneur, Mwaya and EcoBuild Malawi will raise the production of bricks according to the demand and will add another VSBK to the Lilongwe city production plant, with a future expansion to Blantyre city, the biggest commercial city of Malawi.
More information in www.EcoBuildMW.com
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(Photos by Mwayanjana Bolokonya - EcoBuildMW)
