Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) announced that it plans to build a 150,000 tonnes per year aluminum recycling facility, which will be the company’s first and also the largest of its kind in the UAE. EGA intends to market their recycled aluminum under the product name EternAL.
The facility will process post-consumer aluminum scrap from the UAE and surrounding regions, such as used window frames and pre-consumer aluminum scrap from extrusion production, into low-carbon, high quality aluminum billets. Currently, more than half of the aluminum scrap generated in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region is currently either disposed of or exported.
Feasibility studies for the project are underway. Production ramp-up could begin as early as 2024.
Another Step Towards Net-Zero Carbon
Production of aluminum through recycling only requires a fraction of the energy compared to what is consumed to produce primary aluminum, with significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions per tonne of production as a result. The International Aluminium Institute (IAI) forecasts that recycled aluminum will account for up to 60% of the global aluminum supply by 2050.
“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,” said Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, chief executive officer of EGA. “This facility will also strengthen EGA’s position as a global leader in billet production, growing our capacity from some 1.15 million tonnes per year to 1.3 million tonnes amid ever-increasing demand from our customers for this value-added product.”
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. Accordingly, The IAI predicts that global aluminum demand will rise by 50-80% by 2050, driven by global commitments to reduce emissions, while furthering economic growth.
Last year, EGA began marketing aluminum made using solar power from the desert sun under the product name CelestiAL.