Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the UAE outside of the oil and gas sector, has announced plans to build a 150,000 tonnes per year aluminium recycling facility.
In a statement, EGA said that the facility will be the first of its kind for the company, and the largest in the UAE. It will process post-consumer aluminium scrap, such as used window frames, as well as pre-consumer aluminium scrap, such as from extrusion production, and convert it into low-carbon, high quality aluminium billets.
The company said that aluminium scrap for the recycling facility will mainly be sourced from the UAE and the wider region. More than half the aluminium scrap generated in the GCC is currently either disposed of or exported.
It added that feasibility studies for the project are underway, while production ramp-up could begin as early as 2024. EGA intends to market recycled aluminium under the product name EternAL.
Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said: “End users of aluminium – 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 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. And at home in the UAE, it will enable EGA to make a further contribution to both the achievement of Operation 300bn and the success of the In-Country Value programme, creating opportunities in construction and through the replacement of some imported raw materials with recyclable resources already in the UAE.”
Production of aluminium through recycling requires a fraction of the energy consumed to produce new primary aluminium, with significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions per tonne of production as a result. The International Aluminium Institute forecasts that recycled aluminium will account for up to 60% of global aluminium supply by 2050, he explained.
Aluminium is light, strong, durable, electrically and thermally conductive, formable and infinitely recyclable. These qualities make it ideal for applications from electric vehicles to windfarms to mass transit systems that are essential to reach net zero while improving living standards. The International Aluminium Institute forecasts that global aluminium demand will rise by 50 to 80% by 2050 driven by global commitments to reduce emissions while furthering economic growth.
Last year, EGA began marketing aluminium made with the power of the desert sun under the product name CelestiAL.
