Development of Sustainable Bricks Incorporating Rice Husk Ash: A Study on Environmental Impact

The construction industry is one of the major causes of degradation of the environment, as this industry utilizes a large quantity of natural resources and also emits a large quantity of CO₂. In addition to this, burnt clay bricks also play a major role in the degradation of the environment. Rice Husk Ash, which is abundantly available in nature, also contains a large quantity of silica. In a similar way, fly ash, which is available in industrial form, can also be used to develop bricks that are more friendly to the environment. In this project, bricks that are more friendly to the environment and possess higher strength will be developed by using a combination of optimized amounts of Rice Husk Ash and fly ash instead of burnt clay bricks. In this context, a combination of Rice Husk Ash and fly ash will be developed to identify the maximum combination that can provide higher strength and sustainability to bricks with minimum water absorption. In addition to this, durability tests will also be carried out to identify the water absorption capacity of bricks. In addition, a comparative study on the emission of CO₂ will be made to assess the sustainability of the eco-friendly bricks over the burnt clay bricks. The findings revealed that the RHA-fly ash bricks made from the optimized mixture have higher strength, good durability, and a very low carbon footprint. Keywords: Eco-friendly bricks, Rice Husk Ash (RHA), Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, Carbon footprint reduction, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)