Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) completed the design phase of its EX reduction cells, the company’s next generation smelting technology.
“Technology development has been a foundation of our global competitiveness for decades,” said Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, chief executive officer of EGA. “EX technology will enable the production of more aluminum with less energy and lower emissions, unlocking opportunities for EGA’s growth and helping us to meet the increasing global demand for the low carbon primary aluminum required to reach net zero by 2050.”
EGA has developed its own aluminum smelting technology in the UAE for more than 30 years. The company has used its own technology in every smelter expansion since the 1990s and has retrofitted all of its older production lines. In addition, the company was the first UAE industrial company to license its core process technology internationally, in a deal with Aluminium Bahrain in 2016 for use in the Bahraini company’s Potline 6 expansion project.
The EX reduction technology was developed over 18 months by EGA’s Technology Development Design team. The innovations in the design of EX technology are expected to deliver enhanced pot performance with improvements to busbars, superstructure, and potshells — leading to lower surrounding temperatures and better working environment.
The EX reduction cells are larger than its most recently industrialized technology DX+ Ultra, which is already one of the most efficient smelting technologies in the global aluminum industry (successfully having achieved 500 kA and boosting production by 5%). The EX technology will enable an even higher amperage and improved current efficiency, thus increasing production capacity by up to 22%.
EX has been designed with two variants — one to maximize productivity and the other to further minimize greenhouse gas emissions. Reduced electricity consumption along with lower net carbon consumption and the reduced incidence of anode effects is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions per tonne of aluminum produced by around 5% for the more productive variant and around 12% for the lower energy variant.
EGA now intends to construct ten pilot EX reduction cells at its Al Taweelah smelter to test and validate their performance. The pilot reduction cells will be commissioned during the first quarter of 2025, with the new technology expected to be ready for full industrialization by 2028.