UAE’s Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) announced last week the first shipment of spent pot lining to British waste management firm Befesa for recycling.
According to the EGA press release, the firm shipped approximately 5,000 metric tons of the spent lining to Befesa for reuse in industries including cement, fiberglass, and ceramics.
Pot lining has a useful life of between four and five years under normal circumstances. As a result, worldwide aluminium smelting operations produce over one million metric tons of the substance each year. According to experts, the lion’s share of the spent pot linings are stored indefinitely and not reused.
EGA plans to recycle the entirety of its spent pot lining and, according to Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of EGA Abdulla Kalban, the lining sent to Befesa is a significant step in that direction.
“Ultimately our objective is to use all our spent pot lining here in the UAE in ways that are both responsible and create additional value for the UAE’s industries. We are making great progress with the cement industry, creating benefits for both sectors. Meantime, to achieve the highest standards of responsibility, we must also find economic uses for our spent pot lining internationally.”
EGA has been sending spent pot lining to domestic cement plants since 2010. According to the firm, UAE’s cement plants used 37 thousand metric tons of spent pot lining last year alone, which is a greater tonnage than EGA’s total aluminium output.
Based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, EGA is an aluminium conglomerate created by the merger between Dubai Aluminium (DUBAL) and Emirates Aluminium (EMAL) in 2013. EGA holds interests in bauxite/alumina and primary aluminium smelting. It has a yearly production of aluminium of 2.4 million metric tons, making it one of the five largest primary aluminium producers in the world.