Emirates Global Aluminium PJSC (EGA) supplied almost double the amount of waste feedstock to other industries in 2022 as it produced, topping last year’s total supplied waste feedstock by 40 percent.
The firm said last week it supplied 203 thousand metric tons last year to other industries, reducing the amount of material its aluminium operations sends to landfills in the UAE.
The lion’s share of re-used industrial waste from its aluminium operations is spent potlinings, of which the industry as a whole produces over 1 million metric tons each year. Other repurposed waste product shipped to third-party firms include carbon dust, dross, and potline process waste.
Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said in a press release that his firm will likely continue to increase the amount of industrial waste repurposed for other beneficial uses in the coming years.
“Reducing humanity’s burden on the environment while further improving global living standards requires us to maximise the use of the resources we have, and that means thinking of all waste as potentially valuable feedstock. With our partners in other industries, we have made great progress at EGA in developing a circular economy in the UAE and I am confident we will make further progress in the years ahead.”
The firm says it is currently researching methods for repurposing red mud bauxite residue, of which there is around 150 thousand metric tons produced each year. Currently only a tiny fraction of red mud is converted for reuse elsewhere in industry, but EGA is designing a pilot plant at present for a process to repurpose red mud for use in soil.
Based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Emirates Global Aluminium is an aluminium conglomerate created by the merger between Dubai Aluminium (DUBAL) and Emirates Aluminium (EMAL) in 2013. EGA had an estimated enterprise value of US$15 billion at the time the merger took place. The firm is owned equally by Mubadala Development Company of Abu Dhabi and Investment Corporation of Dubai. Emirates Global Aluminium holds interests in bauxite/alumina and primary aluminium smelting.