Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), UAE-based largest premium aluminum producer, plans to build a 150,000 tonnes per year aluminum recycling plant, as the company aims to decarbonize its operations.
The facility will be its first aluminum recycling center and the biggest in the UAE. The plant will process post-consumer aluminum scrap such as used window frames, as well as pre-consumer aluminum scrap from extrusion production, into low-carbon, high-quality aluminum billets, EGA said.
EGA, owned equally by Mubadala Investment Company and Investment Corporation of Dubai, intends to market recycled aluminum under the product name “EternAL.”
Aluminum scrap for the recycling facility will mainly be sourced from the UAE and the wider region. More than half of the aluminum scrap generated in the GCC is currently either disposed of or exported. Feasibility studies for the project are underway. Production ramp-up could begin as early as 2024, the company stated.
Production of aluminum through recycling requires a fraction of the energy consumed to produce new primary aluminum, with significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions per tonne of production as a result.
Abdulnasser bin Kalban CEO – EGA
“End-users of aluminum, from auto manufacturers to beverage makers, are increasingly committing to net zero in response to the expectations of society. This, our first recycling facility at EGA to produce EternAL, is one of the steps we plan to take to provide low carbon metal for our customers around the world. This facility will also strengthen EGA’s position as the global leader in billet production, growing our capacity from some 1.15 million tonnes per year to some 1.3 million tonnes amid ever-increasing demand from our customers for this value-added product.”
EGA, one of the world’s largest aluminum producers, has smelters in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The company is developing its own technology to decarbonize operations and reduce emissions. Its aluminum is shipped to more than 50 countries.
Aluminum is light, strong, durable, electrically and thermally conductive, formable, and infinitely recyclable. These qualities make it ideal for applications from electric vehicles to wind farms to mass transit systems that are essential to reach net-zero while improving living standards.
The International Aluminium Institute forecasts that global aluminum demand will rise by 50 to 80 percent by 2050 driven by global commitments to reduce emissions while furthering economic growth.
