Cuba launched industrial trials Wednesday to produce environment-friendly cement, the National News Agency reported.h The furnaces began to burn local kaolin minerals to partially replace the highly contaminating clinker used to make traditional cement, said Gustavo Suarez, director of the Siguaney Factory in the central province of Sancti Spiritus.

Suarez said the production phase was preceded by a year and a half of testing by researchers at Las Villas University and the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, a partner in the project.

The factory is preparing the first 300 tons of burnt metakaolin needed to make two experimental types of "green cement," in which clinker will be replaced by 15 percent and 45 percent, respectively, Suarez explained.

Cuba has enough kaolin to feed production, according to the National Bureau of Mineral Resources. The Siguaney plant will consume only 68 percent of the energy used in making traditional cement, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 32 percent.

"That's possible, because current gray cement production requires a temperature of 1,200 degrees Celsius, while the new local formula needs only 750," said Suarez.

The ecological cement can replace regular cement to make concrete blocks and roof tiles.