United Arab Emirates: Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, today announced that its emissions of perfluorocarbons were a record low for the company in 2017, and that EGA has signed an agreement with the University of New South Wales to research further reductions.

Perfluorocarbons, known as PFCs, are a group of greenhouse gases which have thousands of times more global warming potential of carbon dioxide. Reducing PFC emissions is an important environmental goal of the global aluminium industry.

EGA’s emissions of PFCs were 22 kilogrammes per tonne of aluminium produced in 2017 compared to a global average of 380 kilogrames per tonne in 2016, the most recent year for which figures are available from the International Aluminium Institute.

At EGA’s newer Al Taweelah smelter, PFC emissions in 2017 were seven kilogrammes per tonne of aluminium produced.

In the aluminium industry reported PFC emissions are known to be associated with momentary process imbalances known as Anode Effects. These occur when the alumina concentration falls in the reduction cells in which aluminium is smelted.

Through technology development and operational improvements, EGA has reduced the frequency of Anode Effects in its operations from an average of once every three days in each reduction cell in 2009 to less than once every 12 days in each reduction cell in 2017. The average duration of each Anode Effect has similarly decreased, from 44 seconds in 2009 to below 21 seconds in 2017.

The new research that EGA will conduct with scientists from the University of New South Wales aims to reduce what the industry terms ‘background’ PFC emissions – those that are from variations in reduction cell conditions that are too small to be detected and remedied by the control technology available today.

The research will focus on developing sophisticated technology to continuously monitor conditions inside reduction cells in great detail and semi-autonomously feed alumina in response to minute changes.

More accurate feeding of alumina in response to changing conditions is also expected to lower energy consumption, reducing emissions of CO2 created through power generation.

EGA’s work to reduce PFC emissions is led by Executive Vice President Dr Ali Al Zarouni, who is in charge of the company’s aluminium smelters in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and EGA’s technology development.

Dr Al Zarouni said: “Reducing PFC emissions in the aluminium industry is a matter of fundamental environmental responsibility.  Unfortunately no single factor provides the solution. Rather we have achieved our reductions through developing our own smelting and pot control technology, continuously improving our operational processes, and rigorously monitoring the quality of our raw materials.

“We believe our new research is the first of its kind as it aims to tackle emissions from minute changes rather than just reducing Anode Effects that we can all detect today.  Working with the University of New South Wales enables us to combine our own technology expertise with the latest academic thinking to tackle this particularly difficult challenge.”

Dr Al Zarouni holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of New South Wales and wrote his doctoral thesis on the subject of “PFC emissions in the aluminium industry”.

The new project is the third research partnership between EGA and the University of New South Wales. Previous research with the university has focused on developing more sophisticated measurements within reduction cells and the findings will be used in the new research work.

EGA is a member of the global International Aluminium Institute and supports the Institute’s voluntary target of a 93% reduction in perfluorocarbon emissions at older smelters by 2020 (using 1990 as the baseline). EGA Jebel Ali achieved this reduction by 2015 - five years early.

EGA has developed its own technology in the UAE for over 25 years. The company’s latest technology is amongst the most efficient and competitive in the global aluminium industry.

EGA has used its own technology for every smelter expansion since the 1990s, including the construction of Al Taweelah, which was the world’s largest single-site smelter when it was completed. EGA has also retrofitted all its older production lines with its UAE-developed technology.

EGA’s technology development has focused both on the reduction cells themselves, and the software to manage their performance.

EGA has reduced its total greenhouse gas emissions produced per tonne of aluminium by 10% since 2011.

About EGA 

Emirates Global Aluminium is equally-owned by Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi and the Investment Corporation of Dubai.

It is the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside the oil and gas industry, and the largest company jointly owned by the two Emirates.

EGA’s aluminium is the second largest made-in-the UAE export after oil and gas. EGA has a production capacity of 2.5 million tonnes of aluminium per year. EGA is the only UAE producer and makes the UAE the fifth largest aluminium producing nation in the world.

EGA has more than 350 customers in over 60 countries. About 80 per cent of EGA’s production is value added products, one of the highest proportions of any aluminium company in the world.

EGA’s aluminium is primarily used in the construction, automotive, packaging, aerospace and electronics industries.

Over 10 per cent of EGA’s production is sold in the UAE to around 26 downstream aluminium companies that make products with EGA’s aluminium. The growing broader aluminium sector in the UAE already employs around 30,000 people, making it the largest employer amongst the UAE’s energy intensive industries.

EGA itself employs around 7,000 of these people including almost 1,200 UAE Nationals.

EGA has focused on technology development for over 25 years. EGA has used its own technology for every smelter expansion since the 1990s and has retrofitted all its older production lines. In 2016 EGA became the first UAE industrial company to licence its core industrial process technology internationally.

As a corporate citizen of the UAE, Emirates Global Aluminium aspires in all its operations to be measured amongst the world’s leading metals and mining companies in meeting its environmental and social responsibilities.

In 2017, EGA became the first Middle East headquartered company to join the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, a global programme to foster greater sustainability and transparency in the aluminium industry.

EGA was formed in 2014 through the merger of Dubai Aluminium and Emirates Aluminium.

DUBAL’s Jebel Ali aluminium smelter began production in 1979. At almost five square kilometres, EGA’s Jebel Ali site is five times bigger than Dubai Mall.

EMAL started production in 2009 and its Al Taweelah aluminium smelter was the largest single-site aluminium smelter in the world when completed. EGA’s Al Taweelah site is five times bigger than Al Maryah Island at six square kilometres.

EGA has its own power stations at both sites, producing electricity to meet its needs. EGA’s electricity generation capacity is 5,450 megawatts, making EGA the third largest electricity generator in the UAE after the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority.

EGA also produces water through desalination units at its power plants. In addition to meeting its own water requirements, EGA supplies 1.5 per cent of the water needs of Dubai as well as commercial water customers and bottlers.

Today EGA is expanding upstream and internationally to secure the natural resources the UAE’s aluminium industry needs and create new revenue streams.

EGA’s wholly-owned subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation is building a bauxite mine and associated export infrastructure in the Republic of Guinea in West Africa, in one of the largest greenfield investments in that country in over 40 years.

In the UAE, EGA is building the country’s first alumina refinery at Al Taweelah. The project will reduce the UAE’s dependence on imported alumina and supply 75 per cent of the Al Taweelah smelter’s needs.

For more information on EGA please visit www.ega.ae

© Press Release 2018