Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) has completed a three-year, $300mn project to replace older production lines at its Jebel Ali aluminium smelter with the companys own UAE-developed technology, boosting production capacity and reducing costs and environmental emissions.
All EGAs 2,777 reduction cells, the swimming-pool sized tanks in which aluminium is smelted, now run on home-grown technology. EGA produces one tonne in every 25 tonnes of aluminium made worldwide and makes the UAE the worlds fifth biggest aluminium producing nation.
EGA has focused on innovation for over 25 years and has used its own technology for smelter expansions since the 1990s, including the construction of EGAs Al Taweelah smelter in Abu Dhabi which was the largest in the world when built.
The 520 reduction cells at Potline 1 and Potline 3 at EGA Jebel Ali were the companys oldest and were originally built from 1979. The new reduction cells each have the capacity to produce 20% more aluminium than those they replaced, with 10% less specific energy consumption to make each tonne of metal.
The new reduction cells technology also reduces emissions of perfluorocarbons, a greenhouse gas generated in the aluminium smelting process from anode effects, by 96%. The project boosts EGAs production capacity by over 58,000 tonnes of aluminium per year.
The execution of the modernisation project took six million man-hours of work, and was finished without a single Lost Time Injury.
Abdulla Kalban, managing director and chief executive officer at EGA, said: This project to replace older reduction cells with UAE-developed technology boosts our competitiveness as one of the largest premium aluminium producers in the world as the new reduction cells can produce more aluminium with less energy and with lower emissions. The most important achievement for me though was that a continuous focus on safety meant this challenging project was completed without hurting anyone.
The replacement work at Potline 1 and Potline 3 was conducted progressively in 16 separate sections, to minimise the time reduction cells were out of production. The first stage took 55 days, but this was accelerated to just 38 days by the final section.
In 2016 EGA produced 2.5 million tonnes of aluminium, a record for the company.