ABU DHABI, 9th February, 2022 (WAM) — Emirates Global Aluminum plans to construct a 150,000 tpa aluminum recycling facility, the company’s first and expected to be the largest in the UAE.
EGA intends to market the recycled aluminum under the product name “EternAL,” the company said in a statement Wednesday.
The facility will process post-consumer aluminum scrap such as used window frames, as well as pre-consumer aluminum scrap from extrusion production, into low-carbon aluminum billets and high quality, said EGA.
Aluminum scrap for the recycling facility will come primarily from the United Arab Emirates and the wider region. More than half of the aluminum scrap generated in the GCC is currently either disposed of or exported, the statement added.
Feasibility studies for the project are underway. The ramp-up of production could begin as early as 2024, the company revealed.
Producing aluminum by recycling requires a fraction of the energy consumed to produce new primary aluminum, resulting in a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per tonne of production. The International Aluminum Institute predicts that recycled aluminum will represent up to 60% of the world’s aluminum supply by 2050, the statement said.
Commenting on the announcement, Abdulnasser bin Kalban, Managing Director of Emirates Global Aluminium, said: “End users of aluminum – from carmakers to beverage manufacturers – are increasingly committing to net zero in response to society’s expectations. This, our first recycling facility at EGA to produce EternAL, is one of the steps we plan to take to provide low carbon metal to our customers around the world.
“This facility will also strengthen EGA’s position as the world leader in billet production, increasing our capacity from approximately 1.15 million tonnes per year to approximately 1.3 million tonnes amid continued demand. increasing number of our customers for this value-added product. United Arab Emirates, this will allow EGA to make an additional contribution to both the achievement of the 300 billion operation and the success of the InCountry Value program, by creating opportunities in construction and by replacing certain imported raw materials with recyclable resources already present in the United Arab Emirates.”
Aluminum is light, strong, durable, electrically and thermally conductive, formable and infinitely recyclable. These qualities make it ideal for applications ranging from electric vehicles to wind farms to mass transit systems that are critical to achieving net zero while improving living standards. The International Aluminum Institute predicts that global demand for aluminum will increase by 50-80% by 2050, driven by global commitments to reduce emissions while promoting economic growth.
Last year, EGA began marketing aluminum made with the power of the desert sun under the product name “CelestiAL,” EGA’s statement said.