BMW first to source CelestiAL-R, says Emirates Global Aluminium

ABU DHABI / WAM

Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) on Thursday announced that BMW Group is the first customer for CelestiAL-R, EGA’s world-first blend of solar aluminium and recycled metal.
All EGA’s aluminium supplies to BMW Group since the start of 2023 have been CelestiAL-R. The metal is used in BMW Group electric drivetrain housings, engine components and large-scale structural parts. Blending CelestiAL solar aluminium with recycled metal further lowers the CO2 emissions intensity of metal production, to below four tonnes of CO2 equivalent per tonne of aluminium produced, depending on the specific alloy.
CelestiAL-R is the first combination of aluminium produced with solar power and scrap metal to meet the stringent quality requirements of the automotive industry. EGA is able to produce CelestiAL-R to these specifications due to the high quality of EGA’s primary aluminium, the rigorous selection of scrap metal, and the flexibility of EGA’s Casthouses.
EGA’s Casthouses have some one million tonnes of foundry capacity, providing flexibility to segregate production. EGA operates the only Horizontal Direct Chill casting machines in the Middle East, which prevent oxidisation on the surface of cast metal resulting in higher quality ingots for the most demanding applications.
CelestiAL-R is tested at every step of the production process, across chemical, structural and mechanical properties. EGA is reporting the results of some 230 comprehensive metal quality test results each month, before metal is dispatched from the UAE to BMW Group Plant Landshut in Germany. The rigour of the production processes, and the quality testing required, mean that CelestiAL-R takes longer for EGA’s Casthouses to produce than any other EGA product.
Scrap for CelestiAL-R is sourced from within the UAE, and consists of engine blocks, wheels, wire rods and construction profiles. The scrap is a mix of post-consumer and pre-consumer industrial scrap. All scrap arriving at EGA is tested against 40 different chemical and other property requirements.
Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, EGA Chief Executive Officer, said, “BMW Group has been a key customer of EGA for a decade. BMW Group’s demand for the highest quality metal produced in the most responsible way has accelerated our progress in sustainability – first to CelestiAL solar aluminium and now to CelestiAL-R. Our goal is to steadily increase the proportion of recycled metal in CelestiAL-R, to further reduce the carbon intensity of our metal and thereby the cars we drive.” EGA has supplied metal to BMW Group since 2013. BMW Group has been the largest customer for EGA’s CelestiAL solar aluminium since the product was launched in 2021.
EGA was the first company in the world to make aluminium commercially using the power of the sun. Generating the electricity required by the industrial process accounts for some 60 percent of the global aluminium industry’s greenhouse gas emissions.