Prashanthini Rajagopal (201117010)

Prithviyashni (201117016)

EMBODIED ENERGY OF MUD CONCRETE BLOCK (MCB) VERSES BRICK AND CEMENT BLOCKS
REPORT AND SUMMARY OF JOURNAL PAPER

AUTHORS:
Chameera Udawattha
Rangika Halwatura

PUBLICATION:
Energy and Buildings

YEAR OF PUBLICATION:
2016

SUBJECT OF ANALYSIS:
To calculate and compare the embodied energies of mud concrete block, which is a relatively new walling
material with brick and cement blocks. This understanding will provide a better guidance during material
selection with the intent to lower energy consumption and finding a more eco-friendly material in building
construction field.

METHODOLOGY:
1. Literature study:
Need to overview literature to identify the embodied energy according to various reports. This could provide
an understand of the different materials used and the steps taken to identify its total embodied energy.

2. Identifiying site location:

Manampitiya (Sri Lanka)

3. Process analysis + Energy accounting and hierarchal structure: method of analysing carbon emissions and
energy consumption in the following stages. The process analysis provides guidance as to the number and type
of steps in each stage of the building materials cycle from its extraction to construction. The energy accounting
provides a qualitative value to every step in the process analysis, which is calculating the embodied energy at
each stage. The hierarchal in this case is a linear process – that is one step jumps to the next without creating
any branched networks.
a) Production
b) Product transport
c) Construction

 Use of proximate energy:

1. The energy for the actual production process
2. The transport of raw materials
3. The transport of the energy sources

 Use of remote energy:

1. The energy embedded in raw materials
 Prashanthini Rajagopal (201117010)
Prithviyashni (201117016)

2. the energy for extracting the energy sources used as direct energy

 Construction Component used to analyse:

Use the above linear process system to calculate the energy consumption of a 100sq.feet wall (10 feetx10 feet)
to construct by the following materials:
Bricks
a) Bricks
b) Cement blocks
c) Mud concrete blocks (MCB)

4. Sources of Energy
Study the various sources of energy consumed by the walling materials and segregate based on renewable and
renewable. This can give a good idea about how embodied energy compares with sustainability and its impact
on the environment.

LITERATURE STUDY:
The authors looked at various reports to understand the type of walling materials that can be used and how its
various materials, even its proportions can make significant changes to its embodied energy. Studies from USA,
Sri Lanka, UK, Northern Island and India were used.

A detailed study by Pooliyadda and Priyan’s - Model for Building Material Energy Analysis was used to
understand the various stages at which energy usage must be calculated. This formulated the basis of the
study. Also, the segregation of type of energy sources used was also inspired from this study. A sample of the
energy analysis used by Pooliyadda and Priyan is given below:
 Prashanthini Rajagopal (201117010)
Prithviyashni (201117016)

ANALYSIS AND FINDING:

Calculate building schedule rates (BSR) to compute the total block consumption:

Calculating the embodied energy of 100sq.ft brick wall in Manampitiya:

Assumption made during the calculation:
 Quarry in which the soil for brick production was used is 500m away
 Electric pump (125 litres per minute) was used on well to pump water for brick mixing
 Mixing and moulding was done manually without machines
 Mortar mixing done using human labour at the site location

Procedure:
STEP 1 – Find the number of bricks required to make a 100sq.ft brick wall – 1150 units
STEP 2 – Find the material requirement to make the 1150 units. This includes:
a) Soil
b) Mortar
c) Cement
d) Sand
e) Water
STEP 3 – Find the method of transporting these materials to the production house and to the construction site
STEP 4 – Find the energy used at each stage in terms of:
a) Biomass
b) Fossil fuel
c) Electricity
STEP 5 - The stages involved in calculating the embodied energy of 100sq.ft brick wall:
a) Extraction (per 1150 units)
b) Brick Manufacturing
c) Brick Transportation
d) Construction
 Prashanthini Rajagopal (201117010)
Prithviyashni (201117016)

Total embodied energy of 100sq.ft brick wall = 15541 MJ

Calculating the embodied energy of 100sq.ft cement block wall in Manampitiya:

Assumption made during the calculation:
 Quarry dust nearest to the site location (20km away) is chosen for extraction
 Electric pump (125 litres per minute) was used on well to pump water for block mixing
 No oil was used for mixing and moulding
 Mortar mixing done using human labour at the site location

Procedure:
STEP 1 – Find the number of units required to make the 100sq.ft cement block wall – 80 units
STEP 2 – Find the material requirements in terms of quantity to make cement block
a) Quarry dust
b) Sand
c) Cement
d) Water
STEP 3 – Find the distances and the method of transportation of these materials to production house and site
STEP 4 - Find the energy used at each stage in terms of:
a) Biomass
b) Fossil fuel
c) Electricity
STEP 5 - The stages involved in calculating the embodied energy of 100sq.ft brick wall:
a) Manufacturing hallow cement blocks
b) Transporting materials to the site
c) Construction of cement block wall

Total embodied energy to construct a 100sq.ft cement block wall = 11542.9 MJ

Calculating the embodied energy of 100sq.ft mud concrete wall in Manampitiya:

 Prashanthini Rajagopal (201117010)
Prithviyashni (201117016)

Assumption made during the calculation:

 Soil extraction was done using human labour only
 Mud cement block factory nearest to the site was chosen (500m away)
 The soil extractions site is 500m away from the factory
 Electric pump (125 litres per minute) was used on well to pump water for block mixing
 To separate mud concrete block from the mould diesel was used
 Mortar mixing done using human labour at the site location

Procedure:
STEP 1 – Find the number of units required to make the 100sq.ft MCB wall – 302 units
STEP 2 – Find the material requirements in terms of quantity to make cement block
a) Soil
b) Cement
c) Sand
d) Water
STEP 3 – Find the distances and the method of transportation of these materials to production house and site
STEP 4 - Find the energy used at each stage in terms of:
a) Biomass
b) Fossil fuel
c) Electricity
STEP 5 - The stages involved in calculating the embodied energy of 100sq.ft brick wall:
a) Extraction of raw material to make MCB blocks
b) Transportation of materials to the site
c) Construction of 100sq.ft MCB wall

Total embodied energy to construct a 100sq.ft MCB wall = 3577.826 MJ

 Prashanthini Rajagopal (201117010)
Prithviyashni (201117016)

COMPARING THE ENERGY CONTENT OF ALL THREE MATERIALS:

The diagram at left shows a consolidated data of the

embodied energy of all three materials chosen to be
analysed. Brick wall has the highest embodied energy
at 15541.1 MJ, followed by cement blocks at 11543 MJ.
Mud cement block wall has the least embodied energy
at 3577.8 MJ.

Since the purpose of the study is also to find more eco-friendly material there is need to check how much
energy that is used during the extraction, production, transportation and construction of the various walls,
there is need to look at how much of these energy sources are eco-friendly. An energy content comparison
was done to understand how much of these energy sources come from the following:
a) Bio-mass
b) Electricity (R- Renewable)
c) Electricity (N – Non-renewable)
d) Diesel

To further the analysis of finding an eco-friendly material

with low embodied energy a study was done to
segregate the energy sources into renewable and non-
renewable. Materials that are
extracted/produced/transported and constructed using
renewable energy can give a very different view on
embodied energy. That is, if embodied energy is high but
the energy used comes from renewable energy it can
have a very different impact than that of a material with
low embodied energy relies majorly on non-renewable
resources.

Bricks despite their high embodied energy use the most

renewable sources throughout their cycle. While cement
blocks primarily depend upon non-renewable methods.
MCB despite its low embodied energy uses a significant
amount of non-renewable sources.
 Prashanthini Rajagopal (201117010)
Prithviyashni (201117016)

UNDERSTANDINGS:
 Mud concrete blocks have the lowest embodied energy – the reason is that during manufacturing stage it
consumes less energy than the other materials. It also has few operation levels and can be made using the
soil from the site itself. Its high energy content comes purely from the addition of cement. However, it is
only 8% of the raw material cost.

 Bricks have the highest embodied energy owing to its heavy bio-mass during its manufacturing stage and
also the sheer number of bricks required. Biomass is regarded as a renewable energy in Sri Lanka despite
it causing environmental pollution – must look at the renewable source aspect of bricks with this in mind.

 Cement blocks consumes a lot more carbon and cost of transportation to the block factory is at the higher
end. Also Quarry dust manufacturing stage uses heavy machinery which adds on to its energy consumed
section. It must also be kept in mind that quarry dust does significant damage to the environment

CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM THE STUDY:

 Bricks have the highest energy content, cement block have intermediate energy consumption and mud
walls have the lowest energy content
 Despite bricks high energy content it consumes more renewable energy in comparison to the other
materials used for the study. Thus, making the bricks more eco-friendly than the cement blocks
 Mud concrete blocks have been found to be more eco-friendly than the other materials due to its low
embodied energy content, lesser number of processes involved and uses more renewable energy than
cement blocks
 Also it needs less machinery and uses human labour during its extraction, manufacture and construction
stages – reduces the dependence on energy sources.
 However, to make MCB more sustainable it needs to employ more renewable energy than it presently
does. If it employs this it could become the best alternative walling material.