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ABU DHABI / WAM
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) on Sunday announced the completion of its historic project to export UAE-developed industrial technology, with the conclusion of performance guarantee tests at Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba).
EGA won a competitive international tender in 2016 to supply its aluminium smelting technology to Alba for a major expansion project (Line 6 Expansion Project), in a significant milestone for the development of a knowledge-based economy in the UAE.
According to a press release issued by the company on Sunday, Alba selected EGA’s DX+ Ultra technology for the Potline 6 Project. DX+ Ultra is the 10th generation EGA technology, and is amongst the most efficient in the world.
Alba’s new production facility, Potline 6, was inaugurated by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain on November 24, 2019.
EGA’s technology at Potline 6 has now passed a final performance guarantee test, with results exceeding EGA’s commitments under the technology transfer agreement.
The production capacity of each reduction cell is 11 percent higher than EGA guaranteed, whilst specific energy consumption – a measure of the electricity required to produce each tonne of aluminium – is one percent better than promised, a significant reduction in the energy-intensive smelting process.
Speaking on the occasion, Abdulla Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said, “The export of EGA’s industrial technology to Alba was historic for our company and for the UAE. I congratulate all the EGA’s technologists who have worked to develop our technology over the years, and the team that was deployed to help implement it in the Kingdom of Bahrain. We are proud that our technology is performing even better than we promised during the commercial negotiations.”
Ali Al Baqali, Alba’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, said, “We selected EGA’s smelting technology because it was the best in the world for our Potline 6. We are also pleased that the performance of EGA’s technology has exceeded our expectations.”
In the performance test at Alba, EGA’s technology operated at 465kA. Specific energy consumption was 12.87 kilowatt hours per kilogramme of aluminium produced.
As part of the technology licensing agreement with Alba, EGA provided experts from its technology development and transfer team and from Operations during the construction of Potline 6. Some 20 EGA technologists participated in the project in total.
EGA also hosted 21 staff from the production and maintenance departments in Alba at its sites in the UAE for hands-on training using EGA’s technology.
EGA has developed its own aluminium smelting technology in the UAE for more than 25 years. EGA has used its own technology for every smelter expansion since the 1990s, and has retrofitted all its older production lines.