Japanese construction giant Takenaka Corp. announced on June 6 that it first applied low carbon cement made with blast furnace slag, a by-product of steelmaking to building frames. The ECM Cement, jointly developed by Takenaka, Kajima, Taiheiyo Cement, Tokyo Institute of Technology and several other companies under the program funded by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) was placed in part of foundation at the hospital construction site in Osaka. The new cement enabled to cut CO2 emission by 60% from the conventional Portland cement according to the contactor.

In order to make a practical use, Takenaka developed chemical admixture that can improve fluidity of concrete, as well as optimized composition and ingredients ratio to prevent shrinkage and cracks.　Placement of 950m3 ECM Cement reduced 146 tons of CO2 throughout the process of concrete production. The cost of the new cement application can be as much as that of conventional concrete. (2015/06/04)