Lower-emissions aluminium manufacturing in the UAE

UAE

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, CEO of Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), talks to The Energy Year about the company’s drive to curb electricity consumption and emissions in aluminium production and establish a green finance platform to promote sustainability in capital allocation decisions. EGA operates aluminium smelters in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, an alumina refinery in Abu Dhabi and is the world’s largest producer of premium aluminium.

What steps is the company taking to align with the UAE’s Net Zero 2050 Strategy, and how will your strategy evolve in the coming years?
Aluminium is an essential material for the development of a more sustainable society. Industries from automotive to packaging rely on aluminium to make more sustainable products, and it is also required for the infrastructure needed for the energy transition.
Sustainably matters in aluminium production. Decarbonisation is essential if our metal is going to achieve its full potential to contribute to human progress over the coming decades. For EGA, this means reaching net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050.
We have already made considerable progress. We have been developing our smelting technology for more than 30 years, progressively improving its efficiency. Technological developments and earlier work started in 1980 have reduced the amount of electricity required to produce each tonne of aluminium by 37.5%, improving both cost and environmental performance.
The GHG emissions intensity of companies in the aluminium sector varies widely, principally because of their different sources of energy. In 2023, EGA’s GHG emissions intensity for smelting and casting was approximately 35% lower than the global industry average. It is clear, however, that we need to do much more.
We have established a strategic roadmap addressing each of our key sources of GHG emissions. While we are working on all of them, the biggest opportunity and our top priority is reducing the emissions intensity of our electricity generation.
In 2021, we became the first company in the world to make aluminium commercially using solar power. We call this metal CelestiAL. We produced 66,000 tonnes of CelestiAL in 2023 and it remains in high demand, particularly in the automotive industry. That must just be the start. We are working with others on a bold plan to divest power assets and source power from the grid instead, including an increasing proportion of clean energy.

Is EGA currently exploring or implementing any new technologies to make aluminium production more energy-efficient and environmentally responsible?
We have been developing smelting technology for more than 30 years. Every smelter expansion at EGA since the 1990s has been done with our technology, and we have retrofitted all our older production lines.
We are currently building pilot reduction cells using our latest generation technology, EX, in Al Taweelah. EX is expected to reduce GHG emissions per tonne of aluminium produced by around 5% for the more productive variant and around 12% for the lower-energy variant.
Our goal is to have this technology ready for large-scale industrialisation by 2028. We are using the pilot to prove the most advanced Industry 4.0 capabilities in the aluminium industry, building on EGA’s existing R&D and Industry 4.0 leadership.

How is EGA investing in recycling, and what role does recycling play in your journey towards net zero?
One of the reasons aluminium is such an essential material for the development of a more sustainable society is that it is infinitely recyclable. Recycling aluminium requires 95% less electricity than producing new metal, and it generates a fraction of the GHG emissions. Global demand for recycled aluminium is expected to more than double by 2040.
For EGA, recycling is a huge growth opportunity and an important part of our roadmap to reach net zero. We have made good progress in 2024.
Leichtmetall uses renewable energy to make high-strength aluminium with a high proportion of secondary aluminium as input material. That company was our first major acquisition. Later in 2024, we acquired 80% of Spectro Alloys, a leading secondary foundry alloy producer in the US, and in the UAE, we began construction of the country’s largest aluminium recycling facility at Al Taweelah. When complete, this plant will have a capacity of 170,000 tonnes per year.
You can expect us to grow our recycling business further in the coming years, but we were using secondary aluminium even before our first recycling production. In 2023, we expanded our low-carbon metal portfolio, combining solar and recycled aluminium to achieve even lower carbon intensity. The product is called CelestiAL-R, and the BMW Group is our main customer for it.

How will M&As fit into EGA’s strategy for the future?
We see enormous growth opportunities in low-carbon primary and recycled aluminium. As you can see from our actions in 2024, we are going to grow our business both organically and through acquisitions.

What is the EGA Green Finance Framework and how does it support the company’s goals and broader industry standards for sustainability?
A green finance framework defines eligibility and governance mechanisms for financing from third-party institutions and funds that prioritise sustainability in their capital allocation. We published our Green Finance Framework earlier in 2024, having worked with Citi, ING and First Abu Dhabi Bank to develop it.It enables us to access a deeper pool of liquidity to finance projects and initiatives that advance our decarbonisation goals, potentially reducing our borrowing costs.
Our acquisition of Leichtmetall, a European producer of high-strength recycled aluminium, was financed through our first green loan facility. Leichtmetall’s operations, which use renewable energy and rely on secondary aluminium for production, align closely with EGA’s goals to support a low-carbon economy.
At EGA, we aim to embed sustainability in everything we do, and that includes finance. In 2022 we were amongst the first major companies in the UAE to open sustainable corporate bank accounts, and in 2023 we rolled out the UAE manufacturing sector’s first ESG-linked supply chain finance programme.

What do you envision EGA’s role will be in shaping the future of sustainable aluminium production, and what legacy do you hope the company will create?
We aspire to innovate for the future of aluminium. We see advancing sustainability as a commercial advantage today, but it will become a commercial imperative tomorrow. While decarbonisation is the central challenge of our generation, sustainability extends far beyond it and covers everything from waste management to safety and gender diversity.
Taking waste management as an example, we want to reuse as much material as possible and reduce our production of waste wherever possible. Where that is not possible, we must recycle. Our R&D teams have developed secondary uses for many of our industry’s most challenging waste streams, including a breakthrough to neutralise caustic bauxite residue and turn it into a main ingredient for manufactured soil.
Other developments include the reuse of spent pot lining, a by-product of aluminium smelting, and carbon dust as alternative feedstocks and fuel by the UAE cement industry. EGA’s long-term goal is to send zero process waste to landfills.
EGA is leading our sector in Industry 4.0 and redefining production processes to make tangible impacts on productivity, efficiency and safety. So far, we have had an impact of more than USD 100 million through more than 80 AI-driven use cases across our operations. The aluminium industry is poised for a transformative future, driven by innovation and a commitment to sustainability. My goal is that EGA plays the leading role in that transformation.

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