Bouygues Construction has made a deal with low-carbon cement company Ecocem to use its ‘ACT’ cement in projects after thoroughly testing it.
Dublin-headquartered Ecocem says its proprietary cement, launched in November 2022, achieves a 70% reduction in CO2 compared with the average European cement blend by replacing 70% of the clinker content with widely available supplementary cementitious materials.
The testing includes Bouygues building concrete walls at its Scale One test facilities in Chilly-Mazarin, France, starting early this year.
Technicians will use sensors to monitor all aspects of the cement’s performance.
Then Bouygues will build a full-scale mock-up structure with slabs, walls, columns, and beams in typical site conditions for further evaluation.
At the same time, Ecocem will complete the cement’s certification process.
“Any low carbon solution deployed by Bouygues Construction must deliver the required concrete performance, using standard working practice, and must be globally scalable and cost efficient,” said Edward Woods, head of R&D at Bouygues Construction.
Conor O’Riain, Ecocem’s managing director for Europe, said: “This commitment to validating Ecocem’s ACT technology by a major player like Bouygues Construction marks a decisive turning point in the decarbonisation of the construction sector.”
In February last year, Ecocem received a European Technical Assessment (ETA) for its cement.
An ETA gives manufacturers a route to CE marking when their product isn’t covered by a harmonised standard under the Construction Products Regulation (EU) 305/2011.
Ecocem has factories in the Netherlands, Ireland, and France, with one planned for the US.
- Subscribe here to get stories about construction around the world in your inbox three times a week
