• Submitted by: lena campos
• Business and Economy
• 03 / 26 / 2013

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Cuba in April will begin producing "ecological cement" using materials that allow it to reduce CO2 emissions by 32 percent during the manufacturing process, Communist Party daily Granma said Tuesday.

In addition, the production process for this green cement, which will be produced in a factory in the central province of Sancti Spiritus, has 29 percent lower energy costs than normal cement.

"Cuba will transform itself into a pioneer on the planet in (cement production), ahead of India, which also will undertake this production in the near future after assimilating the Cuban-Swiss experience," the daily said.

The project is the fruit of joint research between Switzerland's Lausanne Polytechnical University and the CIDEM research center at the Universidad Central Marta Abreu in the Cuban province of Villa Clara.

"The green cement has great utility in applications ... (such as) the production of concrete blocks, roof tiles and in general in all finishing work," CIDEM director Jose Fernando Martirena told Granma.

He added that the product will be "very useful to the petroleum industry for its heat-resistant properties."

Source. GlobalPost.com