Emirates Global Aluminium, the UAE’s largest industrial firm outside of the oil and gas sector, announced today that it is piloting technology reduction cells. This initiative is designed to validate the performance of the new “E40” technology before it is rolled out across all 808 DX reduction cells located at potlines 1 and 2 in Al Taweelah.
If implemented across the entire fleet of 808 cells, EGA’s E40 technology could increase hot metal output from these two potlines by 67,000 tonnes annually. Furthermore, it is expected to lower net specific energy consumption and decrease associated carbon dioxide emissions from power generation by approximately six percent for every tonne of metal produced.
EGA has fast-tracked the E40 pilot programme to integrate these upgrades during the ongoing restoration of the Al Taweelah facility, which sustained significant damage following an emergency shutdown caused by Iranian strikes on the Khalifa Economic Zone Abu Dhabi.
Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said: “Continuous improvement has long been fundamental to how we operate at EGA. We do not only use EGA technology for greenfield projects, but also to progressively produce more aluminium from our existing assets with greater efficiency and lower environmental impact. Accelerating the E40 pilot programme at Al Taweelah is one way we are emerging from the challenges of 2026 stronger than ever before.”
For over three decades, EGA has been developing its own proprietary aluminium smelting technology within the UAE. Since the 1990s, the company has incorporated its own technology into every smelter expansion, maintaining a long-standing practice of retrofitting older production lines with in-house technical advancements.
In 2017, EGA finalized a three-year, $300 million initiative to replace reduction cells at its Jebel Ali smelter with the company’s own UAE-developed technology. That project successfully increased production capacity while simultaneously lowering costs and environmental emissions.
Elsewhere at the Al Taweelah site, EGA is currently testing its latest 10th-generation EX smelting technology, which ranks among the most efficient systems of its kind globally. This pilot serves as a critical step in preparing the EX technology for large-scale industrial use in greenfield projects, including the planned construction of the first new primary aluminium smelter in the United States since 1980, to be located in Oklahoma.
