Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) initiated a technology upgrade pilot at its Al Taweelah smelter, which aims to improve productivity and efficiency. The company’s E40 technology is designed to upgrade existing cells to improve their performance and reduce energy consumption.
“Continuous improvement has long been fundamental to how we operate at EGA,” said Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, CEO of EGA. “We do not only use EGA technology for greenfield projects, but also to progressively produce more aluminum from our existing assets with greater efficiency and lower environmental impact. Accelerating the E40 pilot program at Al Taweelah is one way we are emerging from the challenges of 2026 stronger than ever before.”
Technology Pilot
As part of the pilot project, EGA plans to upgrade 13 DX reduction cells with the new E40 technology. The pilot will be used to demonstrate the performance of the new technology, before deployment across all 808 DX technology reduction cells in potlines 1 and 2 in the company’s Al Taweelah smelter.
If it is applied to all of the 808 DX reduction cells, EGA’s E40 technology has the potential to increase hot metal production from the two potlines by 67,000 tonnes per year. At the same time, it is expected to reduce net specific energy consumption and associated carbon dioxide emissions from power generation by approximately 6% per tonne of metal produced.
EGA has accelerated the E40 pilot program to install the technology upgrades during the ongoing restoration of Al Taweelah, which was significantly damaged when Iranian strikes on Khalifa Economic Zone Abu Dhabi led to an emergency shutdown.
Continuous Innovation
EGA has developed its own aluminum smelting technology in the UAE for more than 30 years and has used its proprietary technology in every smelter expansion since the 1990s. The company also has a long history of retrofitting older production lines with technology upgrades developed in-house.
For example, EGA completed a three-year, $300 million project in 2017 to replace reduction cells in older production lines at its Jebel Ali smelter with the company’s own UAE-developed technology, boosting production capacity and reducing costs and environmental emissions.
In addition, EGA is currently piloting its latest, tenth-generation EX smelting technology at Al Taweelah, which is amongst the most efficient aluminum smelting technologies in the world. The pilot is a key step toward preparing EX for large-scale industrialization in greenfield projects, including the proposed Oklahoma Primary Aluminum project, where EGA and Century Aluminum plan to build the first new primary aluminum smelter in the U.S. since 1980.