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Mexico City –  Scientists at Mexico's Research and Advanced Studies Center, or Cinvestav, are developing a new type of cement that they say will reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by up to 80 percent while lowering the amount of energy consumed in the production process by as much as 50 percent.

"Cement is the second most consumed product in the world after water, due to population growth that in many cities requires the development of infrastructure, buildings and homes," Cinvestav, which depends on the National Polytechnic Institute, said Thursday in a statement.

Yet the intensive use of cement "is detrimental to the environment, which is being bombarded with large quantities of carbon dioxide that are produced" in making the construction material, according to the statement.

The Cinvestav scientists have been developing several types of cement alternatives for the past 13 years, including a geopolymer cement "with greater resistance and durability and with less environmental and economic impact," the statement said.

Project head Jose Ivan Escalante Garcia said the idea is to develop a replacement for Portland cement, which is the most widely used by the global construction industry.

"For every kilogram of this type of cement that is produced, exactly the same amount of carbon dioxide is released," he said.

According to the scientist, around 2.5 billion tons of cement are manufactured worldwide each year and that production accounts for more than 8 percent of the planet's human-caused, greenhouse-gas emissions.

Escalante said that in the traditional cement-making process, large amounts of carbon dioxide are emitted due to the use of coal or coke to heat limestone, clay and shale at temperatures as high as 1,450 C (2,642 F) to obtain a compound known as clinker, which is mixed with gypsum and milled into powder to produce cement.

By contrast, geopolymer-based cement is processed at temperatures of just 750 C.

In addition, industrial by-products such as fly ash from the coal-manufacturing process, metallurgical slags and other raw materials that do not require any type of thermal processing can be incorporated into the production of geopolymer cement and help reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by up to 80 percent, Escalante said.

The expert said geopolymers can be used "to obtain materials with greater resistance and durability," adding that the manufacturing process is cheaper than that of traditional cement because 50 percent less energy is required.

Escalante and his team plan to start field tests soon and obtain even better results than they have from laboratory research.

The world's No. 3 cement maker, Cemex, is based in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey.

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